'Killer' daughter who cooked mother's dismembered body parts looks unrecognizable in court to the shock of family members

Family members of a woman accused of killing and cooking her mother's dismembered body parts have been left shocked after seeing her looking composed in court.

Torilena May Fields, 32, was charged with murder after police found her 68-year-old mother, Trudy, lying in her backyard and body parts being cooked in a pot on October 9.

She made her first court appearance on Tuesday - looking drastically different than she did in her mugshot - and pleaded not guilty to the charges, Fox 56 reported.

Fields' family were stunned at the change in her appearance, noting she did not seem to express any remorse and didn't appear to be mentally ill.

'It looks like nothing is wrong. She was alert, she paid attention to the judge. I didn't see anything that she was psycho or mental. She was talking to the judge like a human being. I thought she would be out of her head,' her uncle Todd Brock said.

'I feel sorry for the girl, but my sister is my sister. Kids don't do that to their mother.'

Her cousin Olivia Brock said: 'I feel like looking at her – I don't know, maybe it's just my thoughts or whatever. I feel like she's aware of what she's done or whatever. I don't know. Yeah, I don't have any words for that.'

She is due back in court on March 10, and her attorney Laura Fitzer said their next steps are gathering more evidence and investigating.

'Boots on the ground is what we're doing at this point and getting some evidence from the Commonwealth and what they want to use to prove a murder against Torilena,' said Fitzer.

'We're just really ready to get all of the information that we can to represent her to the best of our ability and really just tell her story– that's the biggest thing.'

Family and friends said Fields grew up as a stereotypical 'country girl' with loving parents.

They said her problems only started after she moved to California to pursue a career as an actor and singer under the name Naomi Navarre.

Fields allegedly shot Trudy in the head and stabbed her, and 'decapitating, dismembering, eviscerating her corpse' at her home in Mount Olivet, Kentucky.

She then 'placed her head, hands, feet and forearms in a pot in the oven and heating them until they were charred', court documents alleged.

Kentucky State Police responded to Fields' childhood home on October 9, after a man working on the property followed drag marks in the grass and found Trudy's dismembered body in the backyard.

Trudy's arms, legs, and head were detached from her body. The worker also discovered a pile of hair believed to be hers.

He told state troopers he was at the property the day before and saw both Trudy and Fields.

'On [October 8], [the witness] said Fields was casting spells on them and being confrontational,' troopers noted in the citation.

Police obtained a search warrant and entered the home after they were unable to contact Fields.

When she finally came out of hiding, she was covered in blood, they said.

A thorough search of the property revealed a bloodied mattress containing 'multiple body parts and organs'.

The investigators also discovered a pot in the oven that contained what appeared to be cooked human body parts. The pot was still warm to the touch.

She is charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, evidence tampering, obstruction and animal torture after she allegedly tortured and killed a dog.

Her bond is set at $1.5 million, and she is in custody at the Bourbon County Detention Center.