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Satanica

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MANSFIELD, Texas - Mansfield police said a 9-year-old girl was murdered over the weekend, and they believe her aunt is the one who killed her.

Mercia Sneed was initially arrested Saturday on an injury to a child charge.

Investigators believe she hurt her niece, 9-year-old Melodi Sneed, so badly that she went into cardiac arrest.
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Investigators are not yet releasing details about what led to the initial call, or why the child’s aunt was arrested.

But the initial injury to a child charge against Sneed has been upgraded to capital murder.

Mansfield PD Sergeant Travis Waybourn said that at this point, officers are not investigating any other family members in connection with Melodi’s death.

“It can be emotional for everybody involved. Obviously, our sympathy goes out to the family,” he said. “We’re going to do the little girl justice and complete our investigation.”
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@Satanica
Police wrote in a search-warrant affidavit that Mercia Sneed admitted to smothering Melodi.

Sneed's 13-year-old son said in a forensic interview that he saw his mother on top of Melodi, holding a pillow over her, according to the affidavit.

Sneed later told police the same story, admitting to holding a pillow over Melodi's face for "two to three minutes" while the girl struggled, according to the affidavit.

Police sought a search warrant so they could get DNA samples from Sneed to compare to evidence collected during Melodi's autopsy, a Mansfield police detective wrote in the affidavit.
 
@Satanica
The North Texas woman accused of murdering her 9-year-old niece last month, smothered her with a pillow while she laid on top of her, according to the affidavit.

In the affidavit, one of the responding officers stated that Melodi’s 13-year-old cousin witnessed her being suffocated by his mother, 42-year-old Mercia Sneed.

Mercia and her son were then sent to the Mansfield Public Safety Building so detectives could conduct a forensic interview.

Police said Melodi’s cousin stated he saw her kicking her legs and attempting to scream, while his mother laid on top of her until she stopped moving.

Mercia told detectives during an interview that she grabbed a pillow, walked over to Melodi — who was asleep on a coach — and put the pillow over her face to smother her. She said she pushed the pillow down on her face for two-to-three minutes and laid on top of her while doing so.

The affidavit said she attempted to clean Melodi’s face with peroxide, and then hid both the pillow and peroxide bottle.

A motive for the murder was never mentioned.
 
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