Woman accused of killing mother

A WOMAN has been charged with murdering her mother in Launceston.

Police found the body of Veronica Corstorphine, 71, on her bed at her South Launceston home on October 29.

Officers from the Western Australia Police Force arrested 46-year-old West Australian woman Natalie Maher on behalf of Tasmania Police at a hotel in Bunbury, WA, on Thursday night.

She appeared in court in Perth yesterday charged with the murder of her mother and was remanded in custody to appear in court in Launceston on Wednesday.

Police went to the Keana St home in South Launceston after a concerned friend said she had not seen Ms Corstorphine for a month. Police believe the alleged crime took place on or about October 3.

The woman had returned to WA on October 5 after she had been living with her mother for two months.

Detective Inspector Kim Steven said all deaths were treated as suspicious until they were proven otherwise.

“We have been working over the last week to establish exactly what took place — those investigations have led us to the suspicion of murder,” he said.

“The significant length of time between her death and her body being discovered was obviously a complicating factor.

“While we have charged someone, we are still in the early stages of gathering evidence and interviews and so we can’t confirm publicly at this stage how [Ms Corstorphine] died.

“We can say that there was no obvious sign of injury and no weapon involved.”