Brenda Brown

Brenda K. Brown, the woman charged in the 2011 shooting deaths of two elderly Bledsoe County sisters, has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and has accepted a sentence of two life sentences without parole, according to authorities in Bledsoe County.

These sentences are to run concurrently.

Bledsoe County Sheriff's Department investigator Ricky Seals said Brown, who was 47 at the time of her arrest in 2011, was transported to Rhea County Circuit Court today for a hearing before Judge Buddy Perry. Seals said Brown was tearful when discussing her plea with court officials and left the courthouse crying.

The investigator said family members of the victims, Elizabeth Brown, 82, and Elizabeth Brown's sister, Billy Sue Blaylock, 79, were "relieved" by news of the plea.

The sisters' bodies were found Aug. 16, 2011, on their property on Mills Dam Road.

Sheriff Jimmy Morris said following Brown's arrest in 2011 that authorities found Elizabeth Brown in her bed and Blaylock next to some steps outside homes on the property. Both women were still in their nightclothes and each had been shot once in the face, the sheriff said in 2011.