Autopsy: NC girls died from chop wounds

ASHEVILLE, NC (AP) — Autopsies indicate two girls who were attacked by their mother with a hatchet died from dozens of chop wounds to the head and neck.

Documents were released Tuesday by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in the deaths of 8-year-old Jiya Patel and her 4-year-old sister, Piya.

The girls were found dead Aug. 28 in their home in the Oakley community.

Thirty-three-year-old Maiyana Gauri Patel is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Both girls also had cuts on their arms, back, chest and abdomen.

Police say the woman also hit herself in the head repeatedly with the hatchet in a failed suicide attempt. Police say she told them a ghost killed her children.

She’s being held in a prison in Raleigh. Her next court appearance is scheduled Nov. 14.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)