A 73-year-old Phoenix woman was murdered and in the process of being dismembered in her home Sunday, and police think her alcoholic daughter's the one who did it.
Phoenix police went to Deborah Hatley's house on the west side around 3 a.m. Monday, finding Hatley dead and "in the process of being dismembered," according to court documents obtained by New Times.
Her daughter, 42-year-old Carol Hatley, said she was the one who found her mother, and told her neighbor to call 9-1-1. The first problem with that -- Hatley told police she'd found her mother at 7 p.m. on Sunday.
According to the documents, Hatley told police that for the 7 1/2 hours between finding her mother's body and having her neighbor call the cops, she was tampering with the evidence.
She didn't have an explanation as to why she didn't immediately call police, and "showed no remorse or emotions related to the loss of her mother," the documents state.
"[Hatley] was extremely passive and did not express concern," according to a detective's probable-cause statement.
Hatley -- whom police say was intoxicated when they showed up -- admitted to wrapping her mother in plastic bags, as she told police she was about to bring her to the hospital, according to the documents.
The court documents say Hatley described her mother's injuries in "graphic detail" -- police say she had "obvious trauma to her body" -- and admitted to handling two weapons that were "left" at the scene of the crime.
A probable-cause statement notes that Hatley was inconsistent in her stories to police, and was "clearly deceptive to investigators."
The statement says Hatley's story didn't quite match up to what was found at the crime scene.
Hatley's family told police that she had an "alcohol dependency," and "had the potential for violence when intoxicated."
Hatley and her mother were the only ones who lived at the house -- near 49th Avenue and Cactus Road -- and there were no signs of forced entry, according to the documents.
Court documents note that police haven't responded to any previous incidents between Hatley and her mother, but family members told the cops they had a "strained relationship."
Hatley was jailed on one count of second-degree murder, and her bond was set at $1 million.
