Viscella Richards, a retired British actress, was discovered dead at her home in the Caribbean.
Richards, who performed under the stage name Vikki Richards, was discovered on Wednesday inside her North Valsyn, north of Trinidad, bedroom, her hands bound.
After discovering her property had been looted, police believe that the 79-year-old was killed by robbers.
According to the authorities, her body bore no further signs of violence. Following her onstage debut, Vikki starred in television shows including Howard’s Way, Return of the Saint, and The Onedin Line.
Vikki began her career onstage, later appearing in TV’s The Onedin Line, Return of the Saint and Howard’s Way.
Richards gained notoriety for her supporting performance in the grimy 1973 British blaxploitation movie Black Snake, which was filmed on the island of Barbados.
In 1974, she posed with Wolves star striker John Richards for the very first picture ever taken by renowned Sun photographer Arthur Edwards.
Edwards was able to convince Richards to take a picture with the actress, which would mark the start of Richards’ illustrious career on Fleet Street.
Vikki, who was childless and single, was a citizen of both Trinidad and Britain. Her family had migrated to the UK when she was six years old in the early 1950s.
She retired from stage and television acting and relocated back to Trinidad.
Her body was discovered this week by a carer on the bedroom floor of her house close to Port of Spain; local police are now conducting an investigation.
A friend, who had not been able to get in touch with her since Tuesday night, went to check and found her body.
When the woman got to the house, the front gate was locked. The front door was ajar, so she called out to Richards multiple times. It was while looking for the elderly woman that she discovered the body.
Her friend, barrister Sir Timothy Cassel KC, said: “The gate was open when she was found and the door was open.
“So whoever was there was let in by her.”Whether she knew them or not, or whether they manipulated her vulnerability, who knows? It’s sad.”
The hard drive from the security cameras was also stolen. “Yes, we were concerned about her safety because we were getting things in place to get somebody to stay with her as her illness progressed,” the cousin said.
Although Richards could still take care of herself, she could not be left alone for very long, according to her.
“We have lots of memories to talk about, but too much to mention,” she said. “She was a very friendly person, very outgoing and outspoken.”
Shocked friends struggled to take in the news as they recalled the type of person Richards was.
One neighbour said, “She was a beautiful lady, a warm person, engaging, thorough.”
“Living alone in this place, we felt she needed somebody in the house with her, but in a situation like this with people realising she lived alone…she may have been a soft target,” he added.
Another relative who asked to remain anonymous said that she only returned to Trinidad in January after spending time in England and mainland Europe following a trip in December last year.
“She loved to travel and shop. She loved being out and travelled throughout Europe. She loved Italy,” said Richards’ cousin.
Asked if she saw her cousin’s films, she said that she had seen a few, “but I never really kept up with the films she was in”.
Richards’ relative did not want to talk about how she died but noted that pieces of jewellery from her house were missing.
A guard employed by SWAT Estate Police said officers had carried out two daily patrols at 9 am and 11 am and would have swiped their security pass at Richards’ house during those patrols but were only notified around 12.30 pm of the discovery of her body.