WHEN a swarm of TV reporters turned up to the scene of a murder in a small rural town, looking for witnesses to interview, Matthew Haverly was more than happy to oblige.

A UPS driver had spotted the woman’s body in a creek in Wyalusing Township in the US state of Pennsylvania at about 5.30pm last Thursday.

The crime scene was just metres across from Mr Haverly’s house and he told journalists of his shock that something so awful could happen in his little town.

“I was driving out earlier … I saw all the state police out there, I was like ‘What’s going on?’,” he told WNEP reporter Kristina Papa.

“Now I realise that’s what they were actually doing. I had no clue.”

But police will allege Mr Haverly knew exactly was going on, arresting him just hours later after the victim turned out to be his own mother, Patricia Haverly, 60.

Mr Haverly appeared to enjoy his moment in the spotlight, offering up outlandish theories about gang violence and speculating that the woman had been targeted in “some kind of hit”.

“Something went bad, and this is like a rural area, so they just wanted to plant the body somewhere else besides wherever the hell they were from,” he says in the interview.

“It would be like a place where people from the city would want to put a body, because most likely it wouldn’t be found.”

Mr Haverly said he realised something was very wrong when he heard somebody — later revealed to be the UPS driver who found Mrs Haverly’s body — repeatedly beeping their horn.

“When you hear someone trying to honk and honk and honk around here it raises a flag because it’s very quiet,” he said.

Chillingly, considering his arrest just hours later, Mr Haverly expressed his sorrow that the murder had left somebody without a “daughter, mother (and) child”, adding that his own mother would now be scared for her safety.

“It’s sad to say that’s someone’s either daughter, mother, whatever, both, child,” he said.

“I’m guessing my mother, she would be concerned. Probably a lot of the other neighbours would be concerned.”

Police documents state Mr Haverly was charged with criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse, according to CNN.

A state trooper reportedly became suspicious after watching Mr Haverly’s interview and later uncovered evidence allegedly linking him to Mrs Haverly’s murder.

He was arrested on Friday, less than 24 hours after her body was found.

A post mortem examination has been carried by Bradford County coroner but the cause of death has not been released.