Salem Twp. woman's confession played in court: ‘I kept hitting her with a hammer'

SALEM TOWNSHIP, Pa. — In a recorded confession played in court Wednesday, Sarah Vercauteren described in graphic detail what happened the night she said she killed her mother, Dawn Marie Wagner.
 
"My body got really hot, and I got a hammer, and I pick up the hammer.  I placed it on top of the counter, and I hit her in the head with the hammer," Vercauteren said in the recording.
 
The confession was a critical piece of evidence played at a hearing Wednesday afternoon.
 
Vercauteren cried uncontrollably as the video played, Channel 11's Joe Holden reported.
 
She recalled the details of New Year's Eve and of snapping after her mother refused to let her borrow her car.  Vercaureren said she wanted to take the car to buy marijuana, Holden reported.
 
"I pushed her, and I kept hitting her in the head with a hammer.  I don't know how many times.  I kept hitting her," Vercaureren said in the recording.
 
Vercaureren said after her mother was dead, she left the Salem Township mobile home, along with her young son, and went to Mckeesport to get high.  She spent several days and answered texts coming into her mother's phone as if she were alive, Holden reported.
 
Vercauteren said her final words to her mother were:

"I told her I'm sorry and that I loved her," she said in the recording.

Vercautern was captured by police after police said she admitted to robbing a bank in Versailles.

Vercauteren said she never planned to kill her mom, Holden reported.

Related stories:

• Police: Argument over car led to murder of Salem Twp. mother
• Bank robbery suspect fled scene with 2-year-old in car, police say

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