Police investigate after woman found dead in Bongaree home
A woman found dead at a home on Bribie Island has been identified, with friends revealing she attended a “spiritual cleansing” in the hours before a disturbance at her property earlier this week.
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A Bribie Island mother was found dead, believed murdered, in her home by police conducting a welfare check – a day after neighbours heard a disturbance.
Police were not called about the noises coming from Janet Guthrie’s home until Thursday, with detectives investigating whether she was killed on Wednesday night.
Janet Guthrie, 51, was found dead in a “very confronting” scene at her Melia St, Bongaree home at 3pm Thursday, police said.
Detective Inspector Ben Fadian said Ms Guthrie’s death was being treated as a murder. He said she lived alone at the waterfront property.
“The information we have at this stage is that there was a disturbance at the house at Melia St on Wednesday night,” he said, adding the noises were heard around 11pm.
“The matter was reported to us … on Thursday afternoon by a member of the public.
“As a result of that, we conducted a welfare check at the address and located the female person deceased inside.”
The Courier-Mail understands that Ms Guthrie had attended a “spiritual cleansing” on February 15, hours before neighbours heard the disturbance.
Det Insp Fadian said police also responded to an incident at Ms Guthrie’s home a week earlier.
“At this stage we are conducting investigations as a homicide, we don’t have any confirmed suspects at this stage,” he said.
“To date our information is that the deceased lady was the only person living at the home at the time.
“In terms of the crime scene itself, I can’t elaborate on what was contained in there as it’s still subject to investigations.
“It’s very early stages of the investigation so we are keeping an open mind … whether it was a break and enter or something else.”
A man living on the adjacent street said he gave police footage from his driveway cameras of a 4WD driving away at speed on February 15.
He added that police had “bailed up” a large man in front of the home a week earlier.
Neighbour Eunice Dossel said the outside lights of the Melia St property had been on since the beginning of the week.
Asked whether she knew Ms Guthrie, Ms Dossel said “I wasn’t even aware that a woman had lived there”.
A colleague wrote on social media that Ms Guthrie was the “most beautiful soul”.
“Janet you were so loving, so full of life and so gracious in everything you did,” she wrote.
“My heart hurts for you and your beautiful family.”
Police have asked that anyone with information, CCTV or dashcam footage in the vicinity of Melia Street from 6pm February 15 onwards to come forward.
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