A daughter who cared for her elderly mother for over 20 years has been arrested on allegations of killing her when the pensioner refused to go into a home and instead demanded her daughter stay home permanently so she would not be lonely.

The tragic end to over two decades of caring for her mum since her father’s death was played out in the small town of Aidone, which is located in the province of Enna in the southern Italian island of Sicily.

Desperate Maria Gozza, 47, was arrested for murdering her mother Vittoria Malaponti, 69, after calling cops to say her mother had committed suicide.

When the authorities arrived on the scene, they found the woman lying on the floor in the bathroom with a fractured skull.

A coroner was called to the scene and ruled out suicide based on the injuries, at which point the daughter reportedly confessed to the killing.

Her lawyer Carmelo Lombardo has claimed that it was an act of despair. After initially passing the murder off as suicide, she eventually confessed to the killing and is now detained pending a trial.

Lombardo said that in recent months, the relationship between the mother and the daughter had deteriorated after the OAP asked her daughter to never leave her alone and never leave the house.

The mother had been suffering from Alzheimer’s as well, according to local media outlet La Sicilia.

The daughter had decided to admit her mother to a retirement home, to which the elderly woman was opposed despite her age and her dementia.

An autopsy is set to take place on Friday.

The investigation is ongoing.