A North Carolina woman who was charged Tuesday with felony concealment of death reportedly told authorities that she kept her own mother’s body hidden for months so she could “see the stages of death.”

Donna Sue Hudgins, 69, of Enfield, was arrested and charged for concealing the death of her 93-year-old mother, Nellie Mae Hudgins, the Rocky Mountain Telegram reports.

According to an Enfield Police Department news release, an investigation into the matter began when the daughter went to a funeral home in order to make arrangements for Nellie, claiming that “her mother had passed away that morning but she was not sure where Emergency Medical Services (EMS) had taken her body.”

When the funeral home couldn’t locate the woman’s body, they contacted authorities.

Officials ultimately went to Hudgin’s home in order to perform a welfare check, which is when they “discovered a badly decomposed body in the home,” according to the release.

Detectives say they learned through a subsequent investigation that Nellie’s body had been at Hudgins’ residence for “several months” prior to family members being notified of her passing.

A woman who lived near the home, Edna Burgess, told WRAL there were warning signs of the decomposing body, and that her daughter had “smelled an odor outside.”

“I still didn’t pay no mind to it,” Burgess stated. “I thought maybe it was a sewer or something.”

In an interview with detectives, Hudgins reported said she didn’t report her mother’s death because she was “curious and wanted to see the stages of death.”

Hudgins was arrested and given a $5,000 bond, but is no longer in custody.

She is due in court on November 7.

[Feature photo: Donna Sue Hudgins/Enfield Police Department]