A disturbed woman wanted for the shocking slaying of a 97-year-old aunt repeatedly told police, “I killed her. I killed her!” a neighbor told The Post.

The neighbor of the victim, who only gave her first name, Maria, said she saw the suspect walking away in handcuffs at the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side, confessing to three police officers.

“She was handcuffed, and she kept telling the cops, ‘I killed her,”” Maria said. “And they told her, ‘Ok, you did, but just keep paying attention to what we’re telling you. Walk this way.’”

The neighbor said the woman “wasn’t screaming. She just kept saying, all natural, like nothing, ‘I killed her. I killed her.’”

Police sources and neighbors identified the victim as Antonia Cardona, who was found Friday morning inside the housing project on Columbia Street.

Police sources told The Post the woman’s 50-year-old niece, who has a history of mental health issues, confessed to her 19-year-old son that she killed the elderly family member. 

The son called the NYPD, and the niece, who was not identified by cops, was taken into custody and brought to Bellevue for a psych evaluation, according to sources. No charges had been filed as of Saturday morning, an NYPD spokeswoman said.

The city’s medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

Nephtali Braudy, 77, who lives down the hall from the victim, lamented, “That’s a bad shame. She was a good lady. She had somebody that helped her and take her for walks, and that was it. She minded her own business.”

Braudy frequently saw Cardona with a lady he believes to be her niece.

A neighbor who declined to give her name, but gave her age as 78, said she frequently sat outside with Cardona and chatted with all the neighbors.

“Last time I seen her she was out here talking” she said. “Talking about the people around here. She didn’t stay down too long and she went upstairs.”

The septuagenarian said she also knew the niece.

“She seemed normal,” she said. “We were playing dominoes one time over here on those tables. She seemed normal and I used to see her in and out of the building.”

The woman added: “It didn’t seem like she was that type of person to kill someone. And your own family? C’mon. It’s ridiculous. But things happen. People go off.”