DENPASAR, Indonesia: A British woman was found dead in her rented villa on the holiday island of Bali, an embassy official said Friday, while Indonesian police suspect the victim was murdered.
Police said 40-year-old Anne Marie Drozdz was found dead in the cultural tourism district of Ubud on Thursday afternoon and that there were signs her villa had been broken into.
“She was found by the owner of the villa lying dead on the floor with a black cloth over her face,” Gianyar district police chief Komang Sandi Arsana told reporters.
“The door was damaged and there were dried up pools of blood on the floor,” he said, adding that police suspected murder but awaited autopsy results to confirm the cause of death.
The woman had been renting the villa since May 17, police said.
Ida Bagus Putu Alitin, head of forensics at Sanglah Hospital in the city of Denpasar, said that the woman’s body exhibited bruises on the neck and around the mouth. “But we will wait until permission from her family and police to carry out an autopsy,” Alitin said.
A British Embassy spokesman in Jakarta confirmed the death, adding that embassy officials were “ready to provide assistance to the family” and that they were cooperating with local authorities.