A Columbia resident has been accused of killing his mother in December of last year.

37-year-old Terry Lee Self Jr. is charged with murder after a canoer found his mother’s body in the Edisto River on Dec. 3.

Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher identified the suspect as Self’s mother, Regina Arroyo.

Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said in the press release that detectives had been working on this case for seven months to find the person responsible for Arroyo’s death.

He then said that detectives had confirmed that the suspect and his mother had an argument at the suspect’s house then left together after the fight before the suspect allegedly killed his mother.

“The evidence in the case indicates the suspect used a ligature to strangle Ms. Arroyo. After he killed Ms. Arroyo, Self then dumped her body in the river and left,” Koon said in the press release.

Self is currently being held in the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County on an unrelated charge. Lexington County deputies charged him on July 8 and he was denied bond after appearing before a magistrate.

Koon said the department hopes to give Arroyo’s “family members and loved ones some sense of closure,” after the charges against Self were announced.