MYSTERY surrounds the death of a policeman's mother, whose body was found at the Clifton Hill beach in Pt Fortin on Wednesday morning, several hours after she went missing.

While the initial belief is that Shelawaithie "Meera" Bedasse, 57, of Cedros may have taken her own life, as her body was found with a length of rope around the neck, her grieving son Constable Russell Bedasse insists she was murdered and her body left in such a way as to suggest otherwise.

The grandmother of two had left her Southern Main Road, Coromandel Village home at 7.30 am on September 23, for work at a variety store in Pt Fortin.