A woman stabbed to death her mother, chopped up her corpse and disposed of the body parts including the head in bin liners dumped next to a river just hours after trying to kill her brother in a fire, a court heard today.
Lucy Fox, 39, is accused of killing her mother Judy Fox, 65, a retired nurse, in the kitchen of her home in Shifnal, Shropshire, during a frenzied attack on June 12 last year.
She then used her mother's bank card in Asda to buy a ready meal, whisky, and bin liners - which she later used to dispose of her mother's body parts, jurors were told.
A court heard Fox dismembered the body before she dumped the remains in the undergrowth in woodland close to the River Severn and Ironbridge Gorge in Coalport. Judy Fox's torso and arms have still not been found.
Police officers discovered Mrs Fox's severed head in a plastic bag four weeks later on July 10 before finding other body parts scattered around the area in several bin liners.
Fox was charged with murder and arson with intent to endanger life after admitting the crimes when she was arrested - but Stafford Crown Court was told she was unfit to be tried on Monday.
There will now be no trial and it will now be a fact-finding hearing, where the jury will only have to decide what the person did but not the motive or their state of mind at the time.
As a result Fox now cannot be found guilty of murder and arson - but after the jury's verdict the judge could decide that the suspect should go to a hospital indefinitely in a judgment known as a disposal.
Lucy Fox, 39, is accused of killing her mother Judy Fox, 65, a retired nurse, during a frenzied attack on June 12 last year.
Judge Kristina Montgomery QC told the court jurors would now be asked to decide if they could be sure that Fox killed her mother.
Opening the case, prosecutor Kevin Hegarty QC said Fox had bought two knives from a Dunelm store before driving to her mother's home where she stabbed her.
She later set fire to a door mat in an attempt to kill her brother and confessed to both crimes when she was arrested, the jury was told.
Police were called to the property after a fire broke out but there was no sign of Mrs Fox who worked as a staff nurse for local newspapers the Express & Star and Shropshire Star.
But the court heard the kitchen was covered in blood, with splatters over the ceiling, walls, cupboard drawers and back door prompting a
