Woman arrested after mother-in-law found murdered in N.J. home

Saturday, January 30, 2016
VIDEO: Arrest in mother-in-law death
An arrest has been made in a murder investigation after a Mercer County woman was found dead in her home.

EAST WINDSOR, N.J. (WPVI) -- An arrest has been made in a murder investigation after a Mercer County woman was found dead in her home.

Police say 45-year-old Tasneem Diwan was arrested for the death of her mother-in-law, whose body was found Tuesday evening in the first-floor office of her home on Mozart Court in East Windsor, New Jersey.

Diwan is charged with one count of murder, one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and one count of unlawful possession of a weapon.

An autopsy shows 73-year-old Safia Diwan was killed by blunt force trauma to the head.

Diwan was seen late Friday evening in the bus terminal area of the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

She was detained by security officers and Atlantic City police.

Members of the Mercer County Homicide Task Force and the East Windsor Township Police Department transported Diwan back to the area and continued the investigation.

"It's just really sad," neighbor Dan McDonough told Action News. "I know that they are great people, a nice family, and so it's really a terrible tragedy. It's just shocking and upsetting."

McDonough says he knows the Diwan family casually, to say hello to in passing.

Dr. Nauman Diwan, the victim's son and the woman's husband, is a local internist.

Sources say Tasneem Diwan suffers from mental health issues, something neighbors say they were unaware of.

"Nothing that I saw that made me think they are anything but a nice, normal American family living here in the suburbs," McDonough said.

Diwan's bail was set at $1 million. So far, no court date has been schedule.