Texas man suspected of cutting off mother’s head with hacksaw

A Texas man used a hacksaw to cut off his mother’s head before fleeing and leading police on a chase into Oklahoma before they arrested him, authorities have said.

Isaac Israel Warriner, 22, is being held in a Denton County jail on charges including the abuse of a corpse.

He has not been charged with killing his mother, Sarah Warriner, 65, although authorities have not yet confirmed whether such charges could be coming.

Police in Denton, about 35 miles north west of Dallas, were called to an apartment complex on May 5 by a neighbour who said Warriner was “acting weird” and carrying around cleaning supplies, according to an affidavit.

Officers found his mother’s headless body and the hacksaw inside the Warriners’ unit. Her head was not found in the apartment and it is not clear whether it has been located.

Authorities believe Sarah Warriner had been dead for two days before her body was found.

Days earlier, a nurse at a Denton hospital called security when Warriner threatened to kill his mother and himself, according to the affidavit. It is not clear why he was at the hospital, but he left before police arrived.

Warriner was spotted in his mother’s car on May 6 and led police on a chase up Interstate 35 into Oklahoma, where he was arrested and held before being returned to Denton.

His father Kenneth Warriner told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this month that his son suffered a mental breakdown a few months ago.

“She had allowed him to stay with her after his last rehabilitation stay,” Mr Warriner said of his ex-wife. “He was prescribed psychotic drugs to try and help, but that didn’t seem to work.”