New Details In Mansfield Child Murder

(Mansfield, TX) — Mansfield police say a woman charged with murdering her nine-year-old niece now admits to smothering the girl with a pillow.

Officers arrested 42-year-old Mercia Sneed on Saturday on a charge of injury to a child. Investigators say she hurt her niece, Melodi Sneed, so severely the girl had a heart attack. The child was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The charge against Sneed was upgraded to capital murder after she reportedly told police that she had held a pillow over the girl’s face for “two to three minutes.”