Brothers dismembered mother after watching episode of The Sopranos, say police

A TIP from a security guard in California led to the arrests of two brothers who allegedly patterned their mother’s killing and dismemberment after an episode of “The Sopranos”.

Jason Bautista, a 20-year-old college student and hotel desk clerk, and his 15-year-old brother were arrested last Friday night in Riverside for the slaying of their 41-year-old mother.

Jane Marie Bautista's headless, handless body was found about 100 feet down a ravine off the Ortega Highway in the Cleveland National Forest in southern Orange County on January 15.

The elder sibling told investigators that the dismemberment of the body was patterned after an episode of the HBO crime-family series, said Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona.

Mr Carona said that during an interview with investigators, Jason Bautista made "spontaneous declarations that, in fact, he did this because of an episode of 'The Sopranos'."

Mr Carona said that the missing body parts were found in the apartment where the family had lived for about six months in Riverside, east of Los Angeles.

"I don't know what motive you could possibly give for killing your mother, cutting off her head and cutting off her hands," Mr Carona said.

He said the break in the case came from a security guard in Oceanside, who "reported that he had seen two males in a grey vehicle apparently dumping what appeared to be a sleeping bag that contained a human body into a dumpster."

The pair fled in a vehicle taking the sleeping bag with them when the security guard approached, but the guard jotted down the license plate number.

The victim's older son was being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

The mother's partially clothed body was found on January 15 after passers-by spotted what they initially thought was a mannequin.

An autopsy performed on the remains was inconclusive, and the results of toxicological and other tests were pending to determine the cause of death.

Detectives believe the victim's sons killed their mother on the evening of January 14 and cut off her head and hands in an effort to conceal her identity.

Jason Bautista's 89-year-old grandmother, Charlie May Funderburk, told the Los Angeles Times she was shocked to learn that her grandsons had been arrested.

"They were good kids," the Winthrop Harbor, Ill., resident told The Times. "I really don't think Jason could have done it. He is a big boy, but not like that. He is really crazy about his mother."

Neighbours had noticed the home had recently become quieter.

"It was weird that the screaming just stopped," said Derek Fernandez, 26.

Neighbours didn't know what Ms Bautista did for a living, but her oldest son worked the front desk of a Holiday Inn near Ontario International Airport and the younger boy attended high school.

Mr Fernandez and other neighbours said they saw both boys make a few visits to the trash bin carrying white kitchen trash bags.

He added: "We don't know why they kept going to the trash cans, but we thought it was weird".