Retired British actress Viscella Richards has been found dead at her Caribbean home.
Richards, who used the stage name Vikki Richards, was found with her hands bound inside her bedroom in North Valsyn, north of Trinidad, on Wednesday.
Police believe robbers killed the 79-year-old after her property was found ransacked.
Authorities said there were no other marks of violence on her body. Vikki began her career onstage, later appearing in TV’s The Onedin Line, Return of the Saint and Howard’s Way.
Vikki began her career onstage, later appearing in TV’s The Onedin Line, Return of the Saint and Howard’s Way.
Richards was best known for her role as a supporting actor in Black Snake, a gritty 1973 British blaxploitation film shot on location in Barbados.
In 1974, she was in the first ever photo taken by legendary Sun photographer Arthur Edwards when she posed with Wolves star striker John Richards
Edwards managed to persuade Richards to pose with the actress, capturing a photo that would begin his stellar career on Fleet Street.
Unmarried Vikki, who had no kids, held both Trinidadian and British citizenship after moving to the UK with her family aged 6 in the early fifties.
She moved back to Trinidad following her retirement from acting on TV and stage.
Local police are investigating after her body was found this week by a carer on the bedroom floor of her home near Port of Spain.
Her body was discovered by a friend who went to check after being unable to reach her since Tuesday evening.
The woman arrived at the house and found the front gate closed. She called out to Richards several times after finding the front door ajar and stumbled upon the body as she searched the house for the elderly woman.
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.
She said Richards was still well enough to take care of herself, but couldn’t be left alone for much longer.
“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.
