Daughter Strangled and Dismembered Mother

On Monday August 12th, Amara Lundy, 23, was arrested and charged with the murder of her mother, Sue Lundy, 58, both of Olympia, Washington.

In her first court appearance yesterday, Amara appeared via video feed with her attorney and was ordered to be held without bail by Commissioner Rebekah Zinn.  She is charged with first degree murder, and her arraignment is scheduled for August 27th.

Sue and her daughter were living together at the time Sue's friends reported her missing, July 6th after more than a month of no contact from her.  A missing persons case was opened by the Olympia Police Department.

In an initial interview, Amara told police that her mother had gone on a camping trip and that she had left her mother's residence and moved back in with her father.

During the investigation, police gained entrance to Sue's home by way of an unlocked window.  Inside, they discovered that the water and power had been turned off, one toilet was full, and there were several bottles and jugs of urine.  During the search, police noted a strong odor of bleach in a yard container as well as in the basement of the home.  The door to the basement also had a new padlock.

Eventually, Sue's identification and credit cards turned up in a garbage can in a West Olympia shopping center.

On Monday, Amara's father contacted police on her behalf saying that his daughter “wanted to talk to police to provide a truthful statement,” according to court documents.

During that interview, Amara explained that she had gone out and purchased a yellow chord which she later used to strangle her mother.  She said “her mother begged for her to stop but (she) felt at that point her only option was to finish strangling her and continued to do so until her mother stopped thrashing.”

Amara declared that she had “grown tired of her mother and decided that if her mother was dead things would be better for several people."  She “described how she went to great lengths (to) make it look like her mother had simply left town, destroying her mother’s cell phone and throwing her identification in the garbage can.”

After the murder, Amara explained that she held her mother's remains for a week in the yard container before dismembering her body with a knife and saw.  According to her statement, she and her boyfriend then scattered her mother's remains among numerous garbage containers, private and business owned alike.

Her boyfriend has been interviewed by police, but not arrested.  Amara was ordered on Tuesday not to have any contact with him while she is being held.