WIGGINS, Miss. (AP) — An investigator says a Mississippi man charged in the decapitation death of his own mother had been telling relatives that she was away on a cruise.

Stone County Sheriff’s Capt. Ray Boggs said Monday that 29-year-old Terrell Johnson had given that information to aunts and uncles.

Boggs says 51-year-old Sherry Johnson was assaulted multiple times, and investigators are trying to determine whether more than one person attacked her.

Johnson’s body was found Wednesday outside her home near Wiggins by deputies who were asked to check on her. Stone County Coroner Wayne Flurry says the remains had been there several days.

Terrell Johnson was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and remains jailed without bond. His attorneys could not immediately be reached Monday.

Sherry Johnson was a Hattiesburg High School counselor.