A Youngsville man was charged Wednesday with strangling his mother at the family’s house on Kerr Lake, authorities said.

Vance County deputies were called to 135 Friendly Lane at around 2:15 p.m. for a possible cardiac arrest, but Sheriff Peter White said deputies immediately suspected foul play once they got to the lake house.

Geraldine Oakes, 55, of Youngsville, was dead, and her injuries suggested that she had been strangled, White said.

Oakes and her son, Jarred Robert Oakes, 29, had been cleaning up the property at the time.

Jarred Oakes was charged with murder and was being held in the Vance County jail.

Sheriff White said Oakes has a history of mental illness, and investigators aren’t sure he knows what happened.

(The Vance County Sheriff’s Office and WRAL News contributed to this report)