Mary Jane Ward Obituary, Death; – A man answered the door crying and bleeding from his hands, then law enforcement found his mother dead with signs of strangulation inside the Florida home, authorities said. Now, 37-year-old Blake Elliot Hornsby is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his 64-year-old mom, identified as Mary Jane Ward of Georgia, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies wrote in a news release that the agency got a 911 call asking law enforcement to respond to a home in Ebro the afternoon of July 23. When deputies arrived, they heard crying inside, and Hornsby answered the door, “obviously distraught and very emotional,” investigators wrote in an arrest affidavit.
Hornsby told deputies, “She’s inside,” according to the news release. He was struggling to speak but said they were attacked earlier in the day, according to investigators. Deputies said they looked in and found his mom dead on the floor with bruises on her neck that indicated she had been strangled. Hornsby was bleeding from cuts on his hands consistent with his mom trying to pry his hands off her, investigators wrote in the affidavit. He also had scratches on his neck, shoulders and chest that likely came from his mom defending herself, deputies said.
When investigators interviewed Hornsby, he told them he normally protects his mom, but today he couldn’t, according to the affidavit. He also alluded to robots making him do it without explaining what exactly that meant, deputies said. Witnesses said no one else was in the home when the woman was killed, and Hornsby was arrested, according to the report. Washington County is in the Florida Panhandle.
