Woman, 65, charged in beating death of her mother, 80, in Gloucester County

A 65-year-old woman has been charged in the beating death of her 80-year-old mother in Gloucester County, authorities said Thursday.

On Saturday night, police in Washington Township responded to a dispute at an apartment on Woodmont Circle in Sewell, the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.

Florence Dicriscio, 80, was transported to Jefferson Hospital in Washington Township, then transferred to Philadelphia, where she died on Tuesday, prosecutors said.

Loretta Barr, 65, was initially charged with assault, prosecutors said. An autopsy conducted Wednesday by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office led to a determination that the mother’s cause of death was blunt-force trauma and the case was ruled a homicide.

Barr was then charged with manslaughter and possession of a weapon. She was being held at the Salem County Correctional Facility, prosecutors said.

No further details about the case were released.