Every morn­ing since her hus­band’s dis­ap­pear­ance on Ju­ly 6, Sav­it­ri Ja­cob woke with the hope that he would re­turn home alive. But on Sat­ur­day, some­time af­ter 4 pm, her worst fears were con­firmed when his de­com­pos­ing body was found un­der a bam­boo patch about three kilo­me­tres from their Bronte Vil­lage, Princes Town home. An au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed this week to de­ter­mine how 57-year-old El­ton Ja­cob died.

His wife said he had been bat­tling di­a­betes and de­men­tia, and had wan­dered off from home be­fore she woke that morn­ing, around 5 o’clock.

Search­es were con­duct­ed by the po­lice, the Hunters Search and Res­cue Team led by Val­lence Ramb­harat, and fam­i­ly and friends. Some­time be­fore 4 pm, a farmer trekking through the area no­ticed a foul stench. He alert­ed a neigh­bour, who then con­tact­ed Ja­cob’s rel­a­tives. They went to the area and found the body.