Last Saturday, when 53-year-old Onita Higdon (pictured) was visiting her son (who has not yet been identified), an argument ensued outside his Highland Park suburb home. Not long after, Mila Perry, 26, the son's girlfriend, and Higdon stood on the front porch of the home having a heated discussion. Neighbors overheard Perry tell her boyfriend's mother to mind her own business and then she proceeded to punch her.

Witnesses stated that the grandmother was overheard telling Perry in a menacing manner, "I'm going to get you!"

Ernest Jones, a 45-year-old unemployed steel worker, who lives across the street from Perry, heard screams on Monday coming from the two-story frame house, where the woman lived. He told police he saw a young woman run out of the house screaming. The woman identified herself as Perry's boyfriend's sister. She was yelling inconsolably:

"My mother is going to jail! She just killed Mila!"

Jones accompanied the woman into the home. He told the Associated Press:

"I saw blood in the living room and a body part and a trail of blood leading to the kitchen," he said. "There was a pool of blood on the floor and a bloody handprint on the wall."

When Jones stood at the top of the basement stairs and looked down, he witnessed Higdon wielding what he thought was an ax, as she stood over Perry's body.

The stunned man listened to Perry's moans for help and he also reportedly heard Higdon gloat:

"I told you I'd get you!"

When Jones tried to negotiate with the crazed woman, she allegedly told him, "Don't come here or I'll chop her head off." Jones added, "She raised the ax like she was about to hit her. I turned my head and just got out of there."

He immediately called 911 upon leaving the bloody scene.

Higdon was arrested after a four-hour standoff, and even though the grandmother held her 3-year-old grandchild as hostage, the boy was unharmed.

A police autopsy concluded that an ax was not used to kill Perry as Jones had originally stated to police. The weapon used was a kitchen knife.

Higdon was charged with first-degree murder and is jailed without bond. Police say Higdon has no criminal record, but it is not yet known whether she is mentally ill. Higdon's son has custody of his two children.