DETROIT – The husband of a 56-year-old woman who was found strangled to death this week in Detroit says he has absolutely no idea what could have happened to her.
Jane Bashara's Mercedez-Benz SUV was found Wednesday morning in an alley near Pinewood and Annott Street. Her body, beaten, was inside.
An autopsy reveled she had died from strangulation.
She lived in Grosse Pointe Park with her husband, Bob Bashara, and two children.
"I've lost my girlfriend, my partner and it's absolutely, absolutely unthinkable," Bob Bashara said.
Bob Bashara said his wife came home from work Tuesday night but then later wasn't at home and stopped answering her cell phone.
"When I walked in the house, I thought she was in the house somewhere. It wasn't until I went up and changed and then searched through the house and went out to the garage to see that her car was gone that I knew she was out," he said. "I, frankly, thought she was running an errand."
He reported her missing that night.
Police said Bashara's purse was still in her SUV, but there was no cash in it.
"It's just unthinkable that this happened to her, that she had to suffer," Bob Bashara said. "I am just so upset by it."
Police are reviewing surveillance video from the building where Bashara worked in the New Center area.
Bob Bashara said police have questioned him, but that they're just doing their job.
"Someone did this to my wife. I'm doing what I need to do to cooperate with the authorities to find who did this to my wife," he said.
Friends said they were shocked to hear of the mother's death.
"Fantastic lady. Loving, generous, kind and well-liked by everybody," said Judith Jones.
Jones said Bashara was very active in the community, heading up block parties.
"They were always opening up their home, thinking up ideas to bring people together," she said. "My heart is broken for them. I just can't process this."