PHILADELPHIA -- According to her family, one thing was always clear about Cotenita Hanchard.

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Video: Mantua Homicides

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She was a hard worker.

Her family said the 64-year-old mother of five and grandmother of 17 worked three jobs as a cleaning woman and brought her entire family from Jamaica to the United States.

On Thursday, police had a much darker case to deal with as they combed a crime scene on the 3200 block of Mantua Street and tried to figure out how Hanchard -- who was about to celebrate a birthday on Monday -- wound up dead in the back of a car with a bullet in her head.

Authorities said Hanchard and a man, Dwayne Bell, 41, were found dead in a car parked in an apartment complex parking lot in the Mantua section of Philadelphia early Thursday morning.

Police officials said that theft may have been the possible motive for the killings. The lifeless bodies of both victims were found without their wallets.

Police said the victims worked together as cleaners for the upscale Park Hyatt at Bellevue.

When police found the two, Bell was seated in the driver’s seat of his Lincoln Continental and Hanchard was slumped in the back.

It is not clear if they were killed inside the car or not, but police said two different guns were used and both victims were shot multiple times.

Friends of Bell said they were planning to celebrate his birthday on Thursday.