Lankan woman killed while family at work in Australia

The body of the 48-year-old Srilankan woman was found at the family's two-storey home on Barber Drive in Melbourne about 9:30pm on Thursday after her concerned husband could not contact her. Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bailey from Victoria Police said the woman's family last had contact with her on Thursday evening.

"He has spoken to his wife at eight o'clock last night, [at] home with her was the son. After that discussion the son has left the premises, he's an SES worker, and was called out to a police incident in the local area," he said.

"The [woman's] husband has attempted to call her from approximately eight o'clock to about 9:30pm and hasn't been able to raise her. He's been quite concerned and couldn't get hold of his son.

"So what he did was called an associate of his who works with him in the transport industry. "That person has come around to their place around 9:25pm, found the door open and has found the female deceased."

Detective Senior Sergeant Bailey said the family had moved to Australia from Sri Lanka in 1999. The husband flew back to Melbourne early Friday morning. The 21-year-old son, who is also a medical student, was "traumatised" by the death, Detective Senior Sergeant Bailey said.

"He was working out with the SES. It's unclear if he was contacted by his father, or if he actually heard it through communications with the SES and as a result has come back here and has found out his mother has been murdered," he said. He said the house had not been ransacked, but it was too early to say if anything had been stolen. (ABC online)