Woman charged in mother’s crossbow killing dies in jail

PALMERTON, Pa. – Police say a Pennsylvania woman who was charged with killing her mother with a crossbow has died in jail.

WNEP-TV reports 51-year-old Lisa Caplan died in the Carbon County jail Tuesday. The autopsy results are still pending.

Authorities say Caplan picked up a crossbow, shot her 71-year-old mother Sandra Barndt twice and went back to bed at their home in Palmerton in September 2017.

Police discovered the body two days later, while conducting a welfare check.

Caplan’s lawyer, Jon Ostroff, previously said she lived with schizophrenia for two decades.

He blamed a “failed mental health system” for what he said was a preventable death.