VALLEY — A 43-year-old Valley woman has been charged with murdering her own mother. According to Major Mike Reynolds of the Valley Police Department, Heather Lea Christenson was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

Reynolds said that at approximately 3:30 p.m. Valley officers were called to an address on the 2400 block of 36th Street.

“Once on scene, officers found the body of Francis Jane McDonald, who was 79 years old,” Reynolds said. “Mrs. McDonald lived at the residence with her daughter and appeared to have been the victim of a homicide.”

Valley Investigators began processing the
scene and started interviewing McDonald’s
daughter, Heather Lea Christenson, who lived with her.

“During this interview Christenson confessed to killing her mother,” Reynolds said.

Christenson was charged with murder.

She was processed at Valley Police Department, and then taken to the Chambers County Detention Facility.

Investigators weren’t able to determine the cause of death at the scene. The body has been taken to the State Forensics

Lab in Montgomery for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

For more police reports, see Page A5.