Daughter charged in mom’s death

An Athens, Tennessee, woman is behind bars in Roane County on a first-degree murder charge in the death of her 75-year-old mother, who was found dead with a wound to her neck, according to state and local authorities.

Marie Ann Hefner, 50, is being held without bond in the death of her mother, Bertha Lodewegen, whose body was found April 21 by a person who called 911 upon the discovery, according to Susan Niland, spokesperson for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Roane County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to Lodewegen’s home in Rockwood, where they found Lodewegen deceased, according to Niland.

District Attorney General Russell Johnson requested the state agency join the probe with county detectives and the District Attorney’s Office investigator, Niland said.

“An autopsy revealed the manner of death to be homicide,” Niland said in a news release on the arrest.

According to an affidavit in Roane County General Sessions Court, security system logs helped lead investigators to Hefner’s arrest, recording activities inside the home and the comings and goings of Hefner’s Jeep. When deputies found the body in the basement of the home, they identified a wound on the neck.

Hefner gave an account of her activities on April 20, telling investigators she and her mother went to breakfast around 9:30 a.m. and then to a local grocery store before returning to Lodewegen’s home around 12:30 or 1 p.m., the affidavit said. Hefner noted she didn’t really look at the time.

Lodewegen’s security system detected someone arriving in the silver Jeep and entering a side door to the home at 1:04 p.m. and then at 1:25 p.m. recorded a glass breakage alert in the home’s basement, according to the affidavit. The silver Jeep was recorded leaving at 1:34 p.m. Afterward, there was no activity recorded in the home until 9 a.m. April 21 when the person who reported the discovery of Lodewegen’s body made the call to 911.

Hefner remains in Roane County Jail, and no attorney for her was on

record, according to court officials.

According to the affidavit, Hefner has no criminal record.