MOUNT OLIVET, Ky. (AP) – Authorities arrested a Kentucky woman after someone found a dismembered body in her mother’s backyard and officers later found human remains in a pot in the home’s oven that was “still warm.”
A man hired to work at the site in Mount Olivet, about 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati, called authorities Wednesday after finding the body in the backyard, Kentucky State Police said. Officers saw the dismembered body in the grass, a bloody mattress nearby and bloodstains on the back porch and back door threshold, according to an arrest warrant.
Police obtained a search warrant for the home and called in a special response team, but a woman in the home, 32-year-old Torilena May Fields, refused to come out. Police turned on the gas in the house and spoke to Fields using a robot, and she left late that evening without further incident, state police said. According to the citation, she had blood on her face, hands and clothing.
Fields is charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and obstructing government operations. She could face additional charges, state police said in a news release. It was not immediately clear on Friday whether she already had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf. Court records don’t list one for her. She will be arraigned next week.
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While searching the home, officers found a steel pot in the oven containing human remains, and the pot “was still warm to the touch,” the citation said.
The man who called police said he saw Fields and her mother Trudy Fields, the owner of the home, when he visited Tuesday evening. He said there was no one else there. The man told police that before leaving the house that evening, Torilena Fields “cast spells on them and was confrontational,” according to the arrest warrant, which notes she may have used drugs.
The man said when he found the body, he thought it was Trudy Fields because he found a “pile of hair,” according to the arrest warrant. Police wrote in the citation that the victim was Torilena Fields’ mother.