A woman who killed her mother in an apartment they shared in Mt. Laurel was sentenced to 30 years in prison on March 8, Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia L. Bradshaw said Thursday.
Marisa Rivera, 27, of Mt. Laurel was convicted in January of murder in her mother’s 2019 death. Authorities said Rivera stabbed her mother in an apartment at Ramblewood Village and then fled to a hotel on Route 73.
Mt. Laurel police were initially called to the apartment Rivera shared with her mother, Denise DeNapoli, 56, for a wellness check on Sept. 6, 2019, authorities said. DeNapoli’s co-workers called authorities after she did not go to work, officials said.
Rivera killed her mother at approximately 3:30 a.m. that morning, prosecutors said. She was found hours later at the hotel, officials said.
DeNapoli’s autopsy revealed her death was caused by multiple stab wounds, and testimony during the trial shared that the relationship between Rivera and her mother had been deteriorating, officials said.
DeNapoli’s co-workers reported to police that she had been “having problems with her daughter” who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had stopped taking her medications, court records show.
An attorney for Rivera was not immediately reachable Thursday evening.
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