A younger Zadie Wren Cooper smiles broadly at the camera. The girl died July 7, 2016, at Huntsville Hospital. Her mother admitted Wednesday she smothered the girl with a pillow July 4, 2016, at their apartment on Elm Street. Smith had been receiving treatment for mental illness prior to the attack on her daughter. She told police she did not remember the attack.

The mother accused of suffocating her 4-year-old daughter — Zadie Wren Cooper — in 2016 walked into the Athens Police Department Wednesday and confessed to killing the girl, an official said today.

Stephanie Diane Smith, 25, of Athens, told investigators she initially lied to them because she was scared of what would happen to her, Police Chief Floyd Johnson said during a press conference this morning at City Hall.

Smith had been diagnosed with a serious mental illness prior to her daughter’s death and was taking medication at one point.

The chief said this is what occurred the day of the attack:

Mom called 911

Police had received a 911 call on July 4, 2016, from Smith reporting her daughter was not breathing.

Athens police, firefighters and ambulance personnel found Smith performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Zadie, who was lying on her back on her bed. An Athens EMT took over CPR until an ambulance arrived to take her to Athens-Limestone Hospital. She was later transferred to Huntsville Hospital. Tests determined Zadie had no brain activity.

On July 7 — three days after the emergency call — Zadie’s family removed her from life support and she died.

Police think suspicious

Under questioning by investigators, Smith recounted that she had heard something on the baby monitor and found Zadie between the bed and wall, and she was not breathing.

Investigators and the Department of Human Resources re-interviewed Smith in October 2016, and Smith recounted the same sequence of events.

A private autopsy did not determine a cause of death.

Believing the death was suspicious, investigators continued to look into the case.

Confession

On Wednesday — more than nine months after the death — Smith and a friend came to the Police Department on Hobbs Street. Smith told investigators she wanted to confess to killing her daughter. She was advised of her rights but wanted to continue.

She told investigators she put a pillow on Zadie’s face and smothered her. She said she has a mental condition and was not initially aware of what she was doing to Zadie. When she removed the pillow, Zadie was not breathing.

Smith told police she would “see red” during such mental episodes and that she could never recall what transpired during them, Johnson said.