Alleged killer inspired by Agatha Christie

TEHRAN, May 24 (UPI) -- Police in Iran say the country's first alleged female serial killer used ideas from Agatha Christie novels to kill at least six people, most of them middle-aged or elderly women.

The 32-year-old woman allegedly targeted people who were praying at shrines and offered them rides, the BBC reported Sunday.

The suspect allegedly gave her victims juice laced with anesthetic, then strangled them to steal their jewelry before dumping their bodies in isolated locations, prosecutors in Qazvin said.

The suspect allegedly told police her carefully planned crimes, committed during a four month period, were taken from Christie novels to pay off about $25,000 in personal debt, the BBC reported.