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A 19-year-old man has presented himself to police following the death of a 59-year-old woman at her home in north Queensland.
Key points:
- Woman suffered significant head injuries
- Neighbours say woman lived alone and ran home day care centre
- Police yet to charge anyone over the death
The woman died inside her Townsville home after being seriously assaulted about midnight.
Detective Superintendent Ray Rohweder said police were confronted with a "grisly" scene when they arrived and that the incident was being treated as a homicide.
Earlier, officers had appealed for witnesses to come forward.
"Due to the nature of the injuries … there is no doubt that the person that inflicted the injuries would have a significant amount of blood on them," Detective Superintendent Rohweder said.
"Townsville is a safe place to live … police will be working 24 hours a day, seven days a week until this person is behind bars."
'Such a scary sight'
Paramedics treated the woman for significant head injuries and attempted to revive her, but she died at the scene, police said.
Neighbours phoned triple-0 after hearing a disturbance at the house at Innes Street in the suburb of Deeragun.
Neighbour Albert Callum said he tried to help the woman who was lying in a pool of blood.
"I came in and tried to help her and she was just in her own pool of blood, she couldn't breathe," he said.
"It was actually such a scary sight, there was blood all over the counter.
"When I went there I didn't expect her to be on the floor dying, I'm still shaken up from it."
Police not ruling out random attack
Detective Superintendant Rohweder said the woman and her attacker or attackers were not known to each other and officers had not ruled out a break and enter "gone wrong".
"A random attack is certainly a motive we are looking at," he said.
A neighbour named Geoff said the woman lived alone and ran a home day care centre.
"Terrible mate … she's looked after kids for a lot of the years … it's just a shocking incident that never even seen coming," he said.
Topics: death, crime, police, townsville-4810
First posted