Woman in "suspicious" death identified

A 68-year-old woman was identified this morning as the victim in a possible homicide still under investigation by Sutter County sheriff's detectives.

Undersheriff Jeffrey Pierce identified the victim as Baljit Kaur, whose body was found inside her home Wednesday afternoon in the 1900 block of Anthony Way in south Yuba City. Her death is still being called "suspicious."

An autopsy is expected to be done sometime this week. Pierce said detectives have not ruled out homicide as the cause of death.

"We're still in the very early stages of the investigation, at this point," Capt. Lewis McElfresh said on Wednesday.

Citing the ongoing inquiry, deputies released few details.

A family member discovered Kaur's body around noon and called the Sheriff's Department, McElfresh said.

Detectives were dusting for latent fingerprints and awaiting crime scene investigators from the state Department of Justice on Wednesday night.

Residents of the predominantly East Indian neighborhood were surprised even seeing sheriff's deputies on their normally quiet street and were saddened to hear the woman's death was considered suspicious.

"I'm just shook up. It's terrible," said Jaskiran Gill, a Yuba City resident who spends a lot of time with family members who live nearby. "This is always a very nice neighborhood."

Other neighbors were disturbed by the mystery surrounding the death.

"Nobody knows what happened. We asked a lot of people and nobody knows," neighbor Amrit Pal said. "We don't know if we should feel safe in our homes."

Several residents were concerned about the children they've seen staying at the home.

"I'm just glad they weren't there today," Gill said.

Some said they knew Kaur as a neighbor, but didn't know her name.

"I don't know why this would happen," Gill said. "She and her family will be in my prayers tonight."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Department at 822-7307.