Jinsee Ram was well known in her neighbourhood for two things – her love of gardening and her wardrobe of white saris.

On Tuesday morning neighbours gathered outside Ram’s Robin Street home in Kharwastan, Chatsworth, shocked to learn that the 72-year-old woman had been strangled, and that her daughter, who has not been named, had been severely assaulted during a home invasion at about 7.15am.

Ram, a follower of the Hare Krishna religious sect, had adopted the name Dukhi Radha Dasi...