Police: Daughter Murdered Her Own Mother With a Hammer

Story by the Associated Press; Curated by Oliver Darcy.

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EXPORT, Pa. (AP) — State police say a woman found dead in her western Pennsylvania mobile home was killed by her daughter.

Trooper Steven Limani says 25-year-old Sarah Dawn Vercauteren of Export allegedly beat her mother to death with a hammer and strangled her on New Year's Eve.

The body of 51-year-old Dawn Marie Wagner was found Thursday afternoon in her trailer at the Forbes Trail Mobile Home Park. That's about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh, not far from U.S. Route 22. Wagner's body was found by a caretaker and her estranged husband.

Vercauteren, who was already in jail for allegedly robbing a Pittsburgh-area bank on Tuesday, is being held without bond on the criminal homicide charge.

No attorney was listed on court papers.

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