POLICE are treating the death of Macleay Island woman Lisalotte Watson as a murder.
Mrs Watson’s body was found in her Alistair Court home on Tuesday afternoon, after a friend came to check on her alerted police.
Results of a post-mortem are still unknown but Detective Superintendent Geoff Sheldon said the 85-year-old grandmother died a violent death.
Det Supt Sheldon told a press conference on Macleay Island this afternoon Mrs Watson was brutally attacked but said it was unlikely she had been raped.
He urged island residents, and those using the ferries and barges, to give police any information that may help find the murderer.
“There are many rumours flying around the island. If anyone knows any information the best thing they can do is phone police,” he said.
“The majority of crimes are solved by someone phoning police and sharing their information.”
State Emergency Services volunteers scoured streets and grounds of the nearby golf club looking for clues throughout the day.
Leaflets and flyers showing a photograph of Mrs Watson will be distributed to residents and at the ferry terminal.
Island taxi driver Carol Bowen said she delivered the Bayside Bulletin to Mrs Watson on Tuesday at 6.45am and noticed the flyscreen wide open.
“I thought she must be at home and had just left the flyscreen open. It was odd,” Ms Bowen said.
“She was a lovely lady, and no matter how well you knew her you never called her anything but Mrs Watson.”
On Wednesday, police dusted the front steps of the house for fingerprints and conducted door-to-door interviews with neighbours.
Two marked police cars and a forensic unit van were outside the house on Wednesday and Thursday while officers with masks and gloves, removed large bags from the property.
The house was cordoned off while investigations took place, but the street, about 600m from the island pub and ferry terminal, remains open to traffic.
It is the second murder in Redland City this year after the body of 35-year-old Shailer Park mother Angelia Michal Moore was found in the back seat of her car in Cleveland on September, 14.
Former Alexandra Hills State High School relief teacher David John Hunt, a Thornlands resident, has been charged with her murder and is due to appear again in the Cleveland Magistrates Court on November 27.
View Thursday's police media conference outside Mrs Watson's home.