An Elizabeth City woman facing murder charges in the death of her 90-year-old mother has died.
Norma Raper was pronounced dead March 19, the day after she was taken from Albemarle District Jail to Albemarle Hospital for treatment. Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright says a preliminary autopsy indicates Raper died of natural causes.
Police arrested Raper on Sept. 21, 2011, after she was indicted on second-degree murder charges in the death of her mother, Betty Baum. Baum's body had been found a few weeks earlier at the home the two women shared.
An autopsy showed Baum weighed 67 pounds when she died of infection from pneumonia and damaging bed sores.
Raper said her mother had fallen from the couch about a week earlier, but she was unable to lift her.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
