The RUC was last night trying to establish the circumstances behind the death of a nursing home manager in Newtownabbey, on the outskirts of Belfast.
The woman, who was in her 40s, was found dead by local children at about 11 a.m. yesterday in the rear garden of her flat at Cloyne Crescent, Monkstown, which is beside the Abbeyfield home for the elderly which she managed. A post-mortem was carried out yesterday. The woman, whose name is being withheld until relatives are notified, sustained head and face injuries. The RUC is treating the death as suspicious.
The area around the death scene was cordoned off yesterday as police carried out forensic checks and interviewed neighbours.
There were some local reports of a quarrel or disturbance having been heard before the woman's body was discovered, but this could not be officially confirmed.
Mr Andy Beattie, the former independent unionist mayor of Newtownabbey, said he was shocked to learn of the woman's death. He officially opened the nursing home four years ago but was not personally acquainted with the manager as she only recently took up the post.
Mr Billy Greer, a Progressive Unionist Party councillor from Monkstown, described the death as a "terrible tragedy". He too said that little was known about the dead woman.
