Body found at West Texas home was missing mom

TERLINGUA, Texas (AP) — A body found under the floorboards of a West Texas home was the mother of a woman imprisoned for stealing her late father’s federal benefits.

The Brewster County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday said the body discovered Nov. 5 has been identified as 80-year-old Mary Elizabeth Broughton.

No cause of death was released for the mother of Judith Broughton of Terlingua (TER’-ling-guh). Prosecutors say her father died in 1990 and she leased a storage unit in Lexington, Kentucky, where his remains were found last January.

Broughton in July pleaded guilty to stealing benefits electronically deposited into an account she shared with her father. She was sentenced in October to 10 years in prison.

Broughton’s mother was missing for months before her attorney Nov. 5 contacted investigators. The women also shared an account.

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