A Palmerton woman charged with killing her mother with a crossbow last year has died in jail.

Carbon County Coroner Robert Miller confirmed today that 51-year-old Lisa Marie Caplan died in the Carbon County Correctional Facility Monday night.

An autopsy was conducted on Tuesday. Results are pending, he said.

Miller did not release a cause of death.

Deputy Warden Ryan Long said he had no comment on the matter when contacted this morning.

Caplan has been in prison since she picked up a crossbow, shot her 71-year-old mother Sandra Barndt twice and went back to bed at their home in Palmerton in September 2017.

Police discovered Barndt’s body two days later while conducting a welfare check. Police say Caplan admitted to shooting her mother in the neck and facial area with the weapon after she said the two had an argument.

Caplan’s lawyer, Jon Ostroff, who was hired by the family to see that her mental illness was considered as her case goes through the courts, said in October that “she has a very well-known, very well-documented history of mental illness,” and was released from an inpatient treatment facility for schizophrenia in May 2017.

An attempt to contact Carbon County Sheriff Anthony Harvilla, who serves as the president of the county prison board, was unsuccessful as of press time.