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Mumbai: A 46-year-old woman was found dead, her body covered with burns, at her Malad West residence on Monday. While it initially appeared to be an accidental death, an autopsy revealed the woman had been stabbed to death. 
Suzanne Rodriques, the victim, lived on the sixth floor of Marve View society on Marve Road with her teenaged daughters aged 14 and 17. Her husband, Allwyn, is employed in Bahrain. On Monday, Suzanne went to buy provisions at around 11.30am after her daughters left. The society watchman saw Suzanne return by noon but didn’t see any strangers go to her flat thereafter.
"Around 1.30pm, her younger daughter came home from school and knocked on the door. But there was no response and she decided to wait till her elder sister returned from college by 2pm. The two girls did not have a spare set of house keys and grew worried as a sharp odour of kerosene had been emanating from the house all the while. The girls then informed their neighbours who called up the fire brigade. The door was broken down and Suzanne was found lying on the living room floor," said senior inspector Abdul Rauf Shaikh.
Police had also been called by then. Suzanne’s face, neck and torso was covered with burns and there were some pieces of paper stuck to her body. She was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors declared her dead. The police informed her brother who lives in north Mumbai.
"Initially, the family did not suspect anything amiss and believed it to be an accidental death. But we had a nagging doubt that something was wrong. The body was sent for an autopsy to the Borivli post-mortem centre where it was revealed that Suzanne had stab injuries in her stomach. There’s a possibility that the killer set her ablaze after stabbing her, to put the police off track. Turpentine oil had possibly been emptied on her and she sustained around 40% burns," an official said.
Allwyn flew down to Mumbai on Tuesday after being informed of his wife’s death. An inspection of the 1-BHK flat revealed that Suzanne’s jewellery was intact, but Rs 5,000 was missing from the drawers. "We suspect insider involvement in the case. Suzanne must have known the killer and let him inside the house on her own. We are questioning frequent visitors to the flat and those who were friends with Suzanne," the official said. The watchman is also being questioned. A case of murder has been registered by the Malwani police.