71-yr-old woman found strangled

Coimbatore: A 71-year-old woman was murdered during a robbery attempt at her residence at Pannimadai near Thudiyalur in the early hours of Saturday. Police said the murderer had taken away her gold ornaments and mobile phone. Police have formed four special teams to nab the accused.

The Thadagam police said S Muthulakshmi, the deceased, was living alone on Market Street at Pannimadai. She is survived by two sons - Venkatraman, 48, a resident of Erode district and 46-year-old S Krishnamoorthy, who resides at Bharathi Nagar near K Vadamadurai, on the outskirts of the city - and daughter Usha alias Subbulakshmi, who lives with her family at Kavundampalayam.

An investigation officer said Muthulakshmi had rented out a portion of her house to a catering services firm, which mainly used the space to store utensils. “The catering firm staff used to visit the house occasionally.”

He said Krishnamoorthy had spoken to his mother Muthulakshmi over phone at 9.15pm on Friday. “While he received another phone call from her around 11pm, he could not attend the same.”

On Saturday around 6.45am, the officer said, Krishnamoorthy called his mother. But the phone was answered by an unknown person, who switched off the device immediately. “Krishnamoorthy called up the manager of the catering unit, Prasath, and requested him to check on his mother. Prasath found Muthulakshmi dead at her house with strangulation marks on her neck. He also noticed that her earrings, ring and nose stud were missing from the body. Her mobile phone was also not seen in the house.”

Prasath informed Krishnamoorthy, who rushed to the house and alerted the Thadagam police.

Circle inspector Balamurali Sundaram and team visited the crime scene and sent the body to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital for postmortem. The circle inspector said an unidentified person had entered the house and strangulated the elderly woman. “Four special teams have been formed to nab the murderer.”


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