A Bucks County man killed his mother and hid her corpse beneath furniture, $54K and marijuana, police say
William Ingram killed his 82-year-old mother, then fled to Washington, D.C., after the killing, prosecutors say, where he assaulted a police officer while naked and was taken into custody.
In gruesome detail, William Ingram described the bloody scene he left behind at his home in Northampton Township, Bucks County prosecutors said Thursday. And as he did, they said, he casually told police he had beaten his 82-year-old mother to death.
“I killed my mom ... and I threw all this [expletive] over her,” Ingram said, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. “There’s tons of stuff thrown all over the place, I don’t know what the [expletive] I threw. ... there’s blood, just a big mess.”
That confession, prosecutors said, came hours after he was arrested for assaulting a police officer in Washington, D.C., where he fled after the slaying.
Ingram, 49, was charged Thursday afternoon with murder, abuse of a corpse, and related crimes in the death of his mother, Dolores, after she allegedly hit him during an argument on Saturday.
In announcing the charges Thursday, Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said her heart goes out to Dolores Ingram’s family.
“This is heinous,” she said. “For an 82-year-old woman to die in such a manner by someone she trusted is absolutely awful.”
Ingram also has been charged with theft for stealing his mother’s Honda Civic and traveling to Washington, where, authorities say, he assaulted a police officer while naked. Ingram remained in custody Thursday, denied bail. There was no indication that he had hired an attorney.
After the fatal beating, Ingram covered his mother’s body with furniture, clothes and other items from inside the condo they shared on Beacon Hill Drive, according to the affidavit. Blood was smeared across the home’s walls, and there were clear signs of a struggle, the document said.
Amid the debris assembled to hide Dolores Ingram’s body was nearly $54,000 in cash, stored in Ziploc bags, as well as six pounds of marijuana and a package of psilocybin mushrooms, the affidavit said. Prosecutors charged Ingram with felony drug possession and dealing in connection with the money, marijuana and mushrooms.
An aquarium that had housed two pet lizards was also found on top of her body, smashed to pieces. The lizards were found dead nearby.
Neighbors later told police that they were awakened just before 2 a.m. on the day of the slaying by a loud banging coming from the Ingrams’ condo. Security footage from the area showed Ingram running out of the house shirtless at 1:42 a.m. before returning a minute later. He didn’t leave the home again until 10 a.m., the affidavit said, this time fully clothed and carrying a large duffel bag.
Just before 1 a.m. the next day on a Washington street, Ingram, wearing no clothes, approached a police officer who was sitting in his patrol car and used a skateboard to smash the car’s front passenger window, according to a police report.
When the officer confronted Ingram, he grabbed the officer, according to the report. The officer pushed Ingram away, and he ran off.
Other officers caught up to Ingram about a half-mile away and took him into custody. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and destruction of property.
After his arrest, Ingram told the officers that he had used his mothers’ car to drive to Washington from his home in Bucks County, the affidavit said, and that he no longer had an emergency contact because he killed her.
“I think my mom hit me and I [expletive] freaked out,” he explained, the affidavit said.
Schorn, the district attorney, said the idea that Ingram might have acted in self-defense was “absurd.”
“That appears to be a self-serving statement, given what we know,” she said. “Given her size, that she’s 5′2″ petite, and 82 years old.”
An officer from Washington called Northampton Township and asked that a wellness check be conducted for Dolores Ingram at the home she shared with her son.
There, police found her body, and learned that her Honda Civic was missing. Her son’s car was still in the condo complex’s parking lot, and the key fob to his vehicle was found next to her body.