JOLIET, Ill. (STMW) — A Will County judge set bond at $2 million Tuesday for a southwest suburban woman charged with brutally murdering her elderly mother.
Frank Cservenyak, attorney for Gaye Wern, said after the hearing that his client has a history of mental illness and he plans to ask a judge to throw out her confession.
Police said she told them she killed 89-year-old Tresa McCauley on Monday in the condo they shared in the 19500 block of 116th Avenue in Mokena.
McAuley was found dead Monday in her home. A Tuesday autopsy found she died of multiple stab wounds, according to the Will County Coroner’s office.
A team of evidence technicians and law enforcement personnel spent much of Monday combing through the condo, and authorities said they found the kitchen knife Wern allegedly used to repeatedly stab her mother.
Wern, 57, came into Mokena’s police station at 1:45 p.m. Monday and said she had killed her mother several hours earlier, Cmdr. Chris Surdel said.
“She was very distraught,” Surdel said. “Very quiet, with her head down in her lap. She wouldn’t say much.”
Police executed a search warrant at the condo and found McCauley dead in her bathtub with multiple stab wounds to her torso, Surdel said.
Wern was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, Surdel said.
Despite her confession, the reason for the slaying remains unclear. “Detectives said they questioned her on two different occasions, and they cannot pinpoint a motive,” Surdel said.
He said Wern had been living with her mother for about six months.
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