North Carolina prosecutors will seek a mental evaluation of an 18-year-old man charged with decapitating his mother at a home east of Raleigh.
Eighteen-year-old Oliver Funez was charged with first-degree murder Monday after a deputy responding to a 911 call saw the man walk out of a home in Zebulon with his mother’s head in one hand and what appeared to be a large knife in the other.
Deputies found the body of 35-year-old Yesenia Funez Beatriz Machado in the home.
Franklin County District Attorney Mike Waters told WRAL-TV on Tuesday it could take weeks to months to determine Funez’s mental state.
Waters was reviewing the 911 call and will decide whether to release it.
Funez was ordered held on Tuesday. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 14.
Two young girls in the home were not hurt. A fourth child was in schools when the attack occurred.
Deputies were searching the home hours after the body was discovered.
“We owe it to the victims to make sure it’s done in a proper manner — to make sure once it gets to the courthouse, justice can be served,” said sheriff’s office Chief of Staff Terry Wright.
Neighbor Eddie Garner was at the home when the woman’s husband returned home late Monday afternoon.
“I don’t know what they told him,” Garner told WTVD-TV. “I mean, we just heard him crying.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.