Woman Howled 'I Killed Her' After Brutally Strangling 97-Year-Old Aunt To Death

A woman who allegedly strangled her own 97-year-old aunt to death in the Lower East Side, New York, reportedly howled "I killed her" while she was arrested and taken into police custody.

Janice Cruz, 50, has been apprehended on Saturday, Sept. 4, and charged with the murder and strangulation of her 97-year-old aunt, Antonia Cardona.

Cruz who lives in another building in the complex, on Delancey Street, reportedly took care of the elderly woman, helped her get in and out of the bathroom, and used to bring her food every day before committing the horrendous crime, according to New York Daily News.

“I don’t understand it, because she would bring her food every day,” Culma Mercado, 76, Cardona’s longtime friend said. “Every day she took care of her."

Cardona's body was discovered in her 18th-floor apartment on Columbia Street in the Baruch Houses on Friday morning, Sept. 3, by Rosa Perez, Cardona's home health aide who also accompanied the elderly victim to Sunday Mass every week.

“If I found her in a normal death, a regular death, I wouldn’t be the way I am,” Perez said.

Following the discovery of Cardona's body, Cruz was arrested and taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation by law enforcement, New York Post reported.

Cruz reportedly shouted “I killed her! I killed her!” as the police led her out of her building.

“There’s no doubt that was the one that did it, she was crazy,” Mercado said. “We’re still thinking ‘What made her do this?’... Something must have made her snap.”

Cardona was a regular church-goer and reportedly never missed mass at the Lower East Side church. Mercado and her fellow parishioners at Our Lady of Sorrows cried as they spoke about Cardona over the weekend.

“My son sent me something, but when I was reading it the name didn’t sound familiar,” Maria Diaz, 64, a parishioner said. “I didn’t know till a little while ago when I saw her picture.”

“Everybody wants to die of old age in their sleep, and somebody robbed her of that,” she added.

Cardona's grandson Chris Cardona said that he thinks that his grandmother was killed for money.

Cruz currently awaits her arraignment before the Manhattan Criminal Court.