LEWISTON – A 72-year-old woman drove herself to the hospital early Wednesday night after she was attacked with a hatchet in her home. Police investigating the attack charged the woman’s daughter with attempted murder.

Nancy Jean, 54, was arrested on that charge and on a charge of elevated aggravated assault after police said she attacked her mother, Rita Jean, in the home they share at 4 Diamond Court.

Police said the two women argued at the home at about suppertime and then Nancy Jean produced a hatchet and struck her mother at least once in the head.

Jean suffered a long gash on her forehead but was able to escape from the house and drive herself to the hospital, police said. When officers went to the hospital to investigate, they were told that Rita Jean had been assaulted.

Several officers went to the home on Diamond Court, a dead-end off Orange Street, where they found Nancy Jean still inside the house. She was taken to the police department and questioned before she was arrested and booked.

Later Wednesday night, Nancy Jean was being held on $50,000 cash bail. Her mother was treated at the hospital and later released, although it was unknown if she returned to her home.

Police would not say what the pair argued about before Rita Jean was injured.

In the late 1990s, Rita Jean became a well-known local figure after her religious group Miracle of Living Waters purchased the Libbey Mill. While the group owned the vacant building in 1999, it was set on fire in a blaze that burned for an entire day.

Ownership of the mill was the subject of legal wrangling until the building was taken over by the city. At the time, Nancy Jean often spoke on behalf of her mother when inquiries were made about the fate of the beleaguered building.

Nancy Jean is Rita’s oldest daughter. It was not immediately clear how many other children she has. Police said the two were the only people inside their home when Rita Jean was struck with the hatchet.