Woman charged with attacking mother

CARY -- Police say Elizabeth Belken of Cary inexplicably hung up in the middle of an emergency call Tuesday night.

The Cary 911 dispatcher sent the police anyway.

When they showed up at Belken's home at 100 Great Drive, they found that she was being attacked by her daughter with a hammer.

"The 911 system worked the way it should," Sgt. Randy Byrd with the Cary police said today. "We were able to intervene in what could have been a much more serious situation."

Belken, 86, was struck in the head with the hammer, Byrd said. Emergency workers took her to WakeMed where she was treated for injuries not considered life threatening.

Police charged Belken's daughter, Kathryn Carey, 63, of 122 Longchamp Lane in Cary with one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, Byrd said. She was being held in the Wake County jail today in lieu of $450,000 bail, a jail spokeswoman said.

Investigators have not yet disclosed why Carey would assault her mother. Carey had been at her mother's home since early evening after she had called and told her mother she wanted to spend the night there, Byrd said.

"She didn't come over to assault her," Byrd said.

Cary's 911 call center is equipped with software that enables dispatchers to automatically identify the name and address of a 911 caller who phones from a land-line phone, said Rick Thomas, a Cary 911 supervisor. If someone from a land-line hangs up during a 911 call, the dispatcher will call back.

"If the dispatcher is unable to get someone, then an officer is automatically sent," Thomas said.