Annette Beedle's sisters speak after sentencing

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - The sisters of Annette Beedle are speaking exclusively to ABC 57 for the first time since the 60-year-old was convicted of killing their mother, 85-year-old Mary Claypool, back in March.

“It was a tragedy: a bad, bad tragedy that shouldn’t have happened. We lost a mom and a sister at the same time,” said Beedle’s sister, Mary Castillo.

Thursday morning, the judge accepted Beedle’s plea agreement,. sentencing her to 45 years in prison for the charge of murder but mentally ill.

“Before this happened, she was a lot of fun to be around with, happiest person, fun to be partying with at cookouts, until the mental illness struck and then it just went downhill from there. Yeah, it was about the mid-80s when it came out, that it happened to her,” said Castillo.

“When Sue’s on her medicine, and I mean she sticks with it, you’d never know there was anything wrong with her. You’d never know she was mentally ill. But the minute that she’d go off her medicine, because bipolar people feel when they feel good they stop taking it, and that’s when the dams would open and bad things would happen,” said Beedle’s sister, Teena Abbiehl.

On March 7, the now 60-year-old Annette Beedle beat her mother, 85-year-old Mary Claypool, to death with a fire extinguisher, according to her own words in the probable cause affidavit.

Her sisters say they’re not sure if she had stopped taking her pills.

“See, I really feel like I’m responsible for what happened, because I knew Mom didn’t want Sue in the house, and I’m the one that convinced my mom to let her come back, because Sue was having so many emotional problems. She had nowhere to go,” said Abbiehl.

“Her husband just divorced her and married her best friend, and so she’s bipolar already and mentally unstable, so that is what put her down the hill this time. She never came back from that,” said Castillo.

“It was emotionally tough. The fact that my own sister, my own blood, did this to my mom, the person that we were trying to help did this to our mom,” said Teena.

Teena Abbiehl and Mary Castillo, the youngest of six girls, call themselves the ride or die sisters.

They’re the ones who took care of their mom for nearly a year before tragedy wiped the smiles off the faces in this photo.

“The memory that I can’t—never will get out of my mind is…She called me on Monday and she said Mom’s anxious she wants you…I said Mama what’s wrong and she said… I just need you to come here Teena. I just want you here, and I told her I couldn’t, and that’s the last time I talked to my mom,” said Teena.

“I don’t think it was as much as a murder as it was because my mom was very sick very ill and very prone, and she didn’t want to live anymore, we all knew that, so I do think that’s a part of why she did what she did. I believe it in my heart,” said Mary.

“During this whole thing, I don’t think I was ever angry at her. I don’t condone what she did, but she’s the one who has to deal with what she did, not me,” said Abbiehl.

“Mom’s with Dad now, and so I know that’s where she wanted to be. As soon as we lost our dad, she didn’t want to live anymore. They were married 65 years,” said Castillo.

“She’s my sister and I love her. You know, I forgave her for what she did. I’m not going to forget, but I still forgive her,” she said.