Updated

A man who told his stepdaughter her mother was sick is accused of beating his wife to death with a hammer, police in South Carolina said.

April Mosley said it wasn't like her mother not to return phone calls, so she and her sister entered the home, smelled cleaning supplies, saw blood, and then found the body of 58-year-old Mildred Burris Arnold.

Lancaster Police Chief Scott Grant said in a news release Monday that 49-year-old Matthew James Alman has been charged with murder. It was not known Tuesday if Alman has an attorney.