By KEILE CAMPBELL

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

AN Ethiopian woman who became a naturalised citizen after marrying a Bahamian claimed that after police mistakenly searched her Marathon Estates home for drugs and firearms last week, $9,000 went missing from her house.

Aynalel Deveaux, 50, said she and her husband, Marvin Deveaux, 58, were home when a group of officers arrived around noon last Thursday with a warrant.

She said because her husband had difficulties walking, she accompanied the officers as they searched the home.

She said the officers eventually arrived at a locked room, the bedroom of her deceased mother-in-law, which contained the woman’s ashes.

She said officers went into the room despite their opposition because of the important items held in there, including American dollar notes, which amounted to $9,000.

She said officers acknowledged the bag of money and placed it back.

Mrs Deveaux said: “After she told me okay miss, this bedroom is already finished, go to your bedroom, I told her okay, you’re finished here, I wanna close the door. She said not yet till the search is finished. After you can close the door.”

She said she overheard a conversation among officers that suggested they showed up at the wrong house.

“After that, they stopped searching and everybody gone,” she said.

She claimed that when she checked the bedroom and noticed the money was missing, she and her husband drove to the Wulff Road Police Station. There, they were directed to police headquarters.

She said that around 7pm on Saturday, an officer offered sympathy for the missing money and interviewed her and her husband.

She said the money was being saved for a trip to Turkey, where her husband is expected to undergo surgery.

Chief Superintendent Roberto Goodman, the officer in charge of Drug Enforcement Unit, did not respond to messages and calls from The Tribune yesterday.