Roommate charged in beating death of 62-year-old woman

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A 57-year-old woman has been charged in the beating death of her roommate in West Philadelphia.

Word of Denise Taylor's arrest came over the weekend.

Police say 62-year-old Saundra Barley was found severely beaten inside her home on the unit block of 53rd Street around 3:00 a.m. Thursday.

Investigators recovered an extension cord and bat believed to have been used in the brutal assault.

Taylor told police three intruders broke in, but the from beginning the victim's family was telling a different story.

"I'm grieving. I'm all over the place trying to get things set up for her funeral," daughter Felicia Barley said.

Denise Taylor made the call to police claiming three intruders broke into the house around midnight and assaulted the two. But police quickly began discounting her story.

"The crime scene is not consistent with that story. We are talking to her, sort of picking her story apart and see where that goes," Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark said.

Relatives say there's been a history of abuse since Taylor, said to be once-homeless, moved into the house.

They urged Barley to go to police, but say she refused to press charges in the past and now they're left wondering if she'd done so whether she'd be alive today.

"Miss Saundra was a sweet lady. She always sat on her porch, mind her business, speak to you and everything, so this that happened, she didn't deserve this," neighbor Virginia Mayo said.