THE mother of a young woman murdered in her Chigwell home found out her daughter was dead after reading an article on the Guardian website.

Soabia Sayid, 29 from Hycliffe Garden's, was strangled to death in her home last week while her two children made their way back from nursery school with their grandmother.

Her 49-year-old brother-in-law Mohammed Sayid was arrested at the scene and has been charged with her murder but police agreed that his brother, Soabia's husband, could have the responsibility of informing her next of kin.

But Soabia's mother Shafiqun Nahar, 66, who lives in Bangladesh, has been struggling to get answers from the police.

Her nephew Miraz Mahabub, 32 speaking from their home in Bangladesh said: "I couldn't believe what I had read, I felt ill and didn't know how to tell my aunt.

"She was so sick when she heard and it's been difficult trying to find out any information about what happened.

"To begin with we didn't even know who had killed her, or how she was killed.

"My aunt is left with no one now. Her husband died about two years ago and now she's alone and she's not very well."

Mrs Sayid moved to England five years ago after her family arranged for her to marry her English husband.

She kept in regular contact with her mother by telephone and last visited Bangladesh six months ago.

Translating through Mr Mahabub, Mrs Nahar said: "She moved to England to get married and for a better life.

"It was an arranged marriage, it's the tradition here.

"I can't believe this had happened. We thought she was doing well in her life and I don't know why this happened.

"She didn't tell me about any arguments. I thought she was happy.

"She loved her two children and liked to spend time at home with them, and would tell me what they had been doing. Now they are without their mother and I don't have my daughter."

A spokeswoman for Essex Police said: "The next of kin was her husband and he was asked to inform his wife's mother of her death himself which we agreed, but we have been in contact with her to keep her up to date."

A second post mortem is expected to be carried out this week after a provisional examination result showed Mrs Sayid died from asphyxiation by strangulation.

Mohammed Sayid has been remanded in custody and will appear at Chelmsford Crown Court on July 20.