-said they tried to make it look like suicide

TWO men have reportedly confessed to murdering a 48-year-old housewife of Yarrowkabra, Soesdyke/Linden Highway, who was found hanging from a mango tree in her yard early on February 9.

A post-mortem has confirmed foul play in the death of Edith Reuben.

According to a police report, the autopsy which was conducted by government pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh on Friday, revealed that she died as a result of asphyxiation due to hanging, compounded by blunt trauma to the head.

Following the conclusion of the autopsy, police secured a High Court approval to further detain and question the two suspects.

“Police now say that the two men have confessed to hitting the woman to her head after finding her in a compromising position with another male. They further confessed that when she became unconscious, they placed her to hang from the mango tree to make it look like a suicide,” the police report on Saturday noted.

The police had suspected that the woman was killed before being placed on the tree.

“The positioning of the deceased’s body suggests she was murdered and her body placed at the scene,” Police Headquarters reported.

Investigators believe she was killed sometime between 00:30hrs and 06:00hrs the day before she was discovered.

According to the police, Reuben, her husband and others were drinking alcohol the night before and a male friend stayed and spent the night at the house of the couple.

Reuben was last seen alive at 00:30hrs on her verandah; she was drinking while her husband and the male friend retired to bed.

The husband told police that about 04:00hrs, the male friend woke him up and told him he was leaving. The husband said he went back to sleep and woke up two hours later when he made the gruesome discovery.