South Carolina woman blames ghosts after she admits strangling her mother with extension cord

A South Carolina woman said ghosts told her to kill her mother -- so she did.

Paula Anderson was charged with murder in the strangling death of 68-year-old Frances Anderson, reported WBTV-TV.

The 45-year-old North Charleston woman called police shortly before 7 a.m. Monday that she was having a mental breakdown and had killed her mother.

Anderson told police that she was hearing ghosts that threatened to kill her if she did not kill her mother.

Police found the older woman's body on the floor in a back bedroom with a brown extension cord wrapped around her neck.

Investigators found scratch marks on the mother's neck consistent with strangling, and scratch marks on the daughter's face that indicated the older woman had tried to fight her off.

Police said Anderson confessed to the killing multiple times by making "excited utterances" after officers read her Miranda rights, the TV station reported.

She also told police that she deserved to "be in hell or receive the death penalty."

Neighbor said the pair fought sometimes, but they were surprised by the homicide.

They didn't indicate whether the younger Anderson had shown symptoms of mental illness in the past.

Watch this video report posted online by WBTV-TV:

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