RUTHLESS gunmen early yesterday morning shot dead a Clarendon woman and her common-law husband after invading the couple's home in Savannah Cross district.

Indra Coleman, 26, and her 49-year-old common-law husband, Carl Ellington, were awakened about 2:30 when the men kicked open the door to their small house and shot them. They died on the spot.

Coleman's aunt, Julia Israel, said several items of furniture and appliances were missing from the home when she visited after the murder. She said the criminals also stole a gold tooth from Ellington's mouth after bashing it out with a stone.

Israel also told the Observer that the bodies of both Coleman and Ellington appeared to have knife wounds in addition to gunshot wounds.

She said, too, that based on her observation of the bodies, the couple may have attempted to fight back during the invasion.

"It look like him (Ellington) was fighting back because of how him hand cut up. It look like he probably grabbed onto the knife or something; he had lots of stabs in his face and it looks like they cut his throat," she said.

"And I know my niece is a determined girl, so I know she will fight back," she added.

The police said Ellington had returned to Jamaica from overseas on Sunday.

"The man dem (criminals) probably see him and think him have money because him come back from foreign," one policeman said.

Israel also told the Observer that Coleman and her two children, aged two and 11, moved in with Ellington at the house on Sunday, shortly after he returned to the island.

".We taking it hard you know, because them really do her bad. They took out one of her eyes," Israel said. "I don't know if is a knife them use or it get shoot out, but one of her eyes gone."