Athens Police Chief Floyd Johnson had never had a person walk into the Police Department and confess to killing someone.

So, he was surprised when Stephanie Diane Smith, 25, of Athens, came to the department Wednesday and confessed to killing her 4-year-old daughter, Zadie Wren Cooper, by suffocating her with a pillow nine months earlier. He said a lot goes through one’s mind at such a time.

“First thing you think of is Zadie,” Johnson said. “Then you start thinking of the family and the pain that the actions have caused. You think about what Stephanie has gone through. You think about the child’s father. You think about the grandparents. You think about friends.”

Shortly before confessing, Smith sent a text message to five of her friends telling what she did, Johnson said.

Only one of them came forward with the information.

“They may not have believed her, I don’t know, it just bothers me that you have several people out there who didn’t say anything,” the chief said.

Investigators thought the girl’s death last July was suspicious, and they continued to investigate it, he said.

But, a private autopsy had not determined a cause of death.

Police arrested Smith Wednesday on a charge of capital murder, Johnson said. Alabama law requires a capital murder charge in the wrongful death of a child under age 14.

During a press conference Thursday at City Hall, Johnson explained what transpired last year:

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. A series of tests were performed that 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.

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 were still on the case.

Confession

On Wednesday, 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.

Johnson said Smith told investigators she lied to police initially because she was “scared of what would happen to me.”

Mental illness

As to what type of mental illness Smith suffers, the chief said she had numerous issues but he was not qualified to speak to that and had no paperwork at the time to provide an answer. He said that would be a question the courts would have to deal with. He did not know what type of medication she was taking for her mental illness.

Johnson said Smith told investigators Wednesday she had been off her medication three days before she suffocated Zadie.

Court records show Stephanie Smith Cooper and her husband, Joshua Cooper, were separated at the time of her daughter’s death.

The couple married in December 2010 and separated in April 2015.

Cooper filed for divorce in March 2016, citing an “irretrievable breakdown of the marital relationship.”

He sought joint custody of Zadie.

The court granted the divorce in September 2016, two months after Zadie’s death.