BRAMPTON, Ontario, June 23 (UPI) -- Two Canadian sisters convicted of drowning their mother told a probation worker they saw the crime as a mercy killing.
In the pre-sentence report, probation officer Stephen Lane said the young women described their mother as killing herself with alcohol, the Mississauga News reported. The older girl said her mother's drinking was "out of control" and that she had gained a lot of weight and could only move with difficulty.
"Watching her mother kill herself in this way was like living in hell," the report said.
A jury found that the two sisters, 16 and 17 at the time, drowned their mother in the bathtub after giving her liquor and pills. A judge is expected to rule next week on whether they should be sentenced as juveniles or adults.
Prosecutors contend that the teens wanted their mother dead so they could collect $200,000 in life insurance.
When police arrived at the family home in Mississauga, they initially concluded that the mother's death was accidental. The sisters were arrested a year later after a friend secretly taped them admitting what they had done.
