Greenwood - Greenwood police are trying to find out why a woman beat her own mother to death on Christmas Eve. The city's first murder in nearly two years happened at the corner of Main and Meridian Streets. Now, family members say there were warning signs something bad could happen.
Crime scene tape still hangs outside one Greenwood home days after the Christmas Eve murder that took the life of 83-year-old Stella Morgan.
"She was a very quiet beautiful lady," said family friend Nancy Burris.
Burris volunteered with Morgan at church and the Masonic Lodge, where she'd serve Sunday breakfast. On Christmas Eve, she didn't see her friend.
"She was always at church, always sat in the back pew, and I wondered Sunday why she wasn't there."
Greenwood police found Morgan's body that night.
Police say someone beat then dragged her to her garage and left her for dead. Hours later they arrested Morgan's daughter, 45-year-old Stephanie Bryant. Police found Bryant wearing bloody clothing at the Indianapolis bus terminal.
Family members say Morgan doted on her daughter, taking her in so she didn't have to live on the streets. But they say recently, their relationship became strained.
"I'd like to go to the jail and see her and look her in the face and say Stephanie, why? What happened, you know, why?"
Family members told police Bryant was mad at her mother, angry that she wouldn't give her money. Some relatives feared something bad could happen.
"He thought Stephanie was dangerous and that she should have a restraining order."
But family members say those warnings went unheeded by a mother who believed the best in her daughter.
Prosecutors will file formal charges against Stephanie Bryant by the end of the week. She declined an interview from the Johnson County jail, where she's being held without bond.
