Cops: Texas mom admits to killing 4-year-old daughter

ATHENS, Texas - An East Texas woman is charged with murder after allegedly confessing to police that she killed her 4-year-old daughter, reports CBS affiliate KYTX.

According to the station, 25-year-old Stacie Marie Parsons walked into a police department in Athens, Texas, on Monday and told officers that she had murdered her young child, Victoria Wyatt. The suspect is charged with capital murder.

Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt told KYTX that, after Parsons's confession, officers went to the suspect's home and found Victoria dead. She had suffered trauma to her head and chest. The station reports an autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.

The sheriff said Victoria was murdered on a bridge in Henderson County. Parsons allegedly then drove the body back to the family home in the trunk of her car.

Victoria's father, Gary Wyatt Jr., told the station that his wife often lashed out in anger and could be verbally abusive. However, he said the suspect was never physically abusive.

Wyatt told KYTX that he threatened Parsons with divorce the night before their daughter's death, and that his biggest fear was she would simply get angry.

"She actually told me [weeks earlier] if I leave... she was gonna kill the baby," Wyatt said. "That's just angry talk, I never thought for a second she'd actually do it." Now, he thinks he made a fatal mistake.

Wyatt said Victoria was supposed to enroll in pre-school on Monday, and that when he woke up to find neither she nor her mother at the house, he assumed they had just gone without him.

The family said they knew something was wrong when Parsons returned to the home seemingly without Victoria. Family friend Randy Dyess told the station he sensed something was amiss. "Something told me to open the trunk and there she was in a plastic bag... And I saw her little leg hanging out of that plastic bag," he said.

"Luckily the police got her before I did," said Victoria's grandfather, Gary Wyatt Sr. "Who would kill their baby?"

Dyess said he and Victoria's father pulled the girl's body from the trunk, tried to perform CPR and that water came out of her lungs.

Parsons's bond was set at $2 million Tuesday morning following her arraignment on the capital murder charge, according to KYTX.