Derek Ward, 35, allegedly hacked off the head of his mother, Patricia Ward, 66, with a knife in the apartment he shared with her in Long Island.
Ward, who was unemployed and had a long history of mental illness, reportedly dragged her decapitated body out onto the street on Tuesday this week. Because the remains lay near a home decorated with pumpkins, fake cobwebs and a mock graveyard, witnesses initially thought it was a Halloween prank.
NEW YORK BEHEADING: Why would a son decapitate his own mother?
Ms Ward’s brother, Reverend Robert Lubrano, told the New York Daily News that his sister died because she had been unable to obtain medication in time to treat her son’s mental illness.
“He killed my sister because we couldn’t get the prescriptions he needed. For four days, he didn’t have his meds,” Rev Lubrano said, adding that Ms Ward had scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist for Friday, three days after she died.
Ward was seen kicking his mother’s head about 6m down the street.
“I literally thought it was a prank,” one witness told WCBS 880. “We saw the body on one side and saw the head on the other side. I thought everything was a prank.”
Ms Ward was a languages professor at Farmingdale State College for nearly three decades, and a spokesman for the institution described her as “well-known, well-liked and well-respected”.
She was believed to have suffered multiple stab wounds and broken ribs before she died.
About 25 minutes after the murder, Ward jumped in front of an eastbound train on the Long Island Rail Road line.
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