Man decapitates mother and drags body down street

A New York man with a history of psychiatric problems decapitated his mother, dragged her body into the street in front of their home and then killed himself by walking in front of an oncoming train, Long Island police said yesterday.

Neighbours initially took the woman’s killing as a macabre Halloween prank.

Patricia Ward, a 66-year-old professor, was killed on Tuesday night in her Farmingdale apartment just steps from a Long Island Rail Road station, Nassau County Police Detective Lieutenant John Azzata said.