ICYMI: Brooklyn Grandma Found Dead Near Hammer Was Strangled

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — A woman is under arrest in connection with the strangulation death of an elderly Flatbush woman last week, who was found dead near a broken hammer.

Police have arrested 43-year-old Tamisha Harper of Brownsville, the NYPD said, and charged her with the murder of 78-year-old Flatbush grandma Edna Pierre-Jacques.

Pierre-Jacques was found dead last Monday morning in her East Flatbush home, near the intersection of Troy Avenue and Avenue D, police said.

Authorities searching the home found a broken hammer near her body, a police source said, leading some to believe she may have been beaten to death.

The medical examiner's office, though, has ruled her death a strangulation.

Her husband was at the home when police arrived, and authorities were questioning him and her other relatives for clues in the case, the police source said.

Police also found gaming machines in the home's basement, and while the investigation is primarily focused on Pierre-Jacques' death, authorities were looking into "who might have been visiting, coming and going, to use these gaming machines," the police source said.

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Editor's note: This story was initially published on Tuesday, March 7