PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Trinidad Express) – A 74-year-old woman who returned to her Laventille home from church yesterday morning to find a burglar inside her house was raped and killed, homicide detectives have said.

Dead is Norma Holder. According to homicide detectives Holder returned home around 10:00 am Holder lived alone in a two-storey house located along the Eastern Main Road in Laventille.

A neighbour noticed a strange man inside Holder’s home drinking a Guinness and raised an alarm.

A worker from the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (NP) gas station located directly opposite Holder’s home called out to the pensioner but got no response.

A man was seen scaling a wall behind Holder’s home.

When the gas station employee entered Holder’s home he found the 74-year-old woman dead lying on the floor inside her bedroom.

The pensioner’s throat appeared to be slit.

Homicide detectives believe Holder was also raped.

Police officers are working on the theory that Holder’s killing was a robbery gone wrong.

Neighbours expressed shock over the situation.

“What is it going on in this country? When you think things cannot get any worse they prove you wrong,” a man who requested anonymity said.

The NP service station opposite Holder’s home was once operated by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Social Welfare Association (TTPSSWA).

There is still a sign with the association’s name on a building at the service station.

“This is the main road, one of the busiest streets in the country, police used to run this gas station, it is a Sunday, middle of the morning, an old lady come home from church and you rape and kill her. What really going on,” he said.

“I now reading that they kill a baby to hear that they kill and rape and old woman, things getting terrible here,” he said.