British woman smothered to death in front of her son at island home
A BRITISH woman was smothered to death in front of her ten-year-old autistic son at their home on the island of Mauritius, it emerged yesterday.
Janice Farman is thought to have been killed by three men armed with knives, who stole jewellery and money before driving off in her car.
Her adopted son Gavin, who had been sleeping nearby, was tied up but managed to free himself.
He tried to resuscitate his mother and phoned one of her friends for help, according to local reports.
Police last night said they had arrested one man in connection with the case.
Mrs Farman, 47, is from Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, and had lived on the Indian Ocean island for 13 years.
She was director of a data services firm and lived in Albion, ten miles from the capital Port Louis.
Police said the house was ‘easily acces- sible’ as it was not protected by high fencing or large gates and did not have surveillance cameras or an alarm.
The men are said to have entered the house at around midnight on Thursday.
They punched Mrs Farman then smothered her with a cushion before she collapsed on to her bed.
The thieves ransacked her home and took a TV, a games console and jewellery before leaving in her gold Nissan Tiida, which the police have recovered.
Gavin, who was adopted by Mrs Farman when he was two months old, was taken into care by the island’s child development unit.
Local newspapers said Mrs Farman was in the process of divorcing her second husband Jean-Baptiste Moutou, who was in his native Cameroon when the murder took place. He confirmed the couple had separated last year and said: ‘Janice is a person who would not hurt a fly.’
One of her colleagues at PECS Data Services said: ‘She was caring beyond belief and would never hesitate to offer her help as and when needed.’