BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana-born minister is back home in Brazil, nearly a month after a mentally disturbed homeless man attacked her on a Rio de Janeiro beach.

The woman's mother, Mary Johnson Sarradet, tells The Advocate that she spoke to Renee Elliott Murdoch for about 45 minutes on Thanksgiving, the day Murdoch returned home. She says Murdoch sounded good, but still has a long way to go.

Sarradet says she has kept up with her daughter's progress through videos posted online by her son-in-law and other family members.

Police have said Murdoch was attacked while jogging.

She's from Brusly (BROO-lee), near Baton Rouge. She's now a pastor of Light to the Nations, an interdenominational Christian church that she and her husband, Philip Murdoch, founded 12 years ago in Rio de Janeiro.

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