Grandmother, killed a year and a half ago, is left in home while family cashes checks, cops say

PHOENIX - Prescott police said a mother and daughter confessed on Tuesday to killing the family's 77-year-old grandmother in late 2017 and cashing monthly checks in her name ever since.

A concerned resident reported to police on Tuesday morning that he hadn't seen Sandra Aven in "quite some time," police said.

Officers began their investigation and found Aven's granddaughter, 24-year-old Briar Aven, who said her grandmother was "out of town and unavailable," police said.

Briar Aven and her mother, 46-year-old Tara Aven, who is Sandra's daughter, live next door to the elderly woman, police said. Investigators found "several inconsistencies" in stories offered by both women, police said.

Officers entered the home to check on the missing woman and found the body of an "obviously deceased person."  The body had not been positively identified as of 4 p.m. Tuesday. 

In subsequent police interviews with the women, they confessed to killing Sandra Aven in late 2017 and cashing numerous monthly payment checks in her name ever since, police said.

Both women will be booked into the Yavapai County Jail on multiple charges, though police as of Tuesday afternoon hadn't specified what those charges would be.

An investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective John Hanna with the Prescott Police Department at 928-777-1961.

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BrieAnna J. Frank on Twitter @brieannafrank.