A Cobb Superior Court grand jury has indicted an East Cobb woman who’s been charged with assaulting and strangling her mother to death with a robe belt.
An eight-count indictment was handed down Thursday against Gretchen Fortney, 52, who was arrested on Sept. 30 for murder and aggravated assault.
She was indicted on one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, three counts of family violence-related aggravated assault and another count of aggravated sexual battery.
An arrest warrant said that Martha Fortney, 78, was assaulted with “an unknown object or objects” by Gretchen Fortney on the morning of Sept. 30 at the residence they shared in the Loch Highland subdivision, resulting in multiple injuries to the older woman’s torso and head.
The warrant states that the victim “was observed with what appeared to be the belt from her robe tied or looped around her neck” and there was a “visable ligature mark which resulted in her death.”
The indictment states that Gretchen Fortney caused the death “by blunt force trauma and strangulation” first by striking her mother with a hard object, then by tying a cloth belt around her neck. The assault damaged Martha Fortney’s left eye, right elbow and ribs and sternum, according to the indictment.
Gretchen Fortney also is accused of penetrating her mother’s sex organ with an unknown object, prompting the count of aggravated sexual battery.
Martha Fortney, who was listed as the owner of the home on Loch Highland Pass, was involved in Bible studies at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and the Daughters of the American Revolution, according to an obituary.
Gretchen Fortney remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond.
Related:
- Suspect arrested at Roswell Road apartment after police standoff
- NE Cobb woman arrested for murder at Loch Highland home
- Man arrested after knife threat at East Cobb Wendy’s
- Cobb Sheriff: Deputy killings ‘hurt all of us’
- 3 charged at Chattahoochee NRA Sope Creek after car break-ins
- 2 Cobb sheriff’s deputies killed serving warrant; 2 arrested
- East Cobb man sentenced for child sexual exploitation
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