The 33-year-old gave police a series of sick reasons as to why she allegedly drowned her 7-year-old child in a creek near their home.
Brandi Elliot from Hendersonville, Tennessee, 17 miles outside Nashville, could face the death penalty after being arrested for first-degree murder, ABC affiliate WKRN reported.
Elliot allegedly murdered her young daughter in Drakes Creek on July 13 after the mother said she was having a bad day.
The mother told police officers that she tried to leave her apartment for some alone time, but her daughter followed her and didn’t want to be home alone.
After her daughter refused to leave, Elliot allegedly said she took the young child to a greenway across the street and drowned her.
The woman told officers she held her daughter under shallow water “like a large mouth bass” until she felt her “bubbling,” according to court documents.
Elliot reportedly told her daughter to be quiet as she drowned her.
She said it wasn’t until she pulled her daughter up from underwater that she realized what she had done.
The mother claimed she tried to revive her daughter using CPR, but it was too late.
Hendersonville police responded to the scene and took the girl to Hendersonville Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Elliot was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
As court proceedings began for the mother, the state informed her that she may not just be facing prison time – but also death.
When the judge informed her of the possible outcome, Elliot broke down crying as she replied, “Yes, sir.”
During her first hearing on July 16, the mother refused a mental evaluation and informed the court she was previously diagnosed with post–partum depression.
“When my daughter was two, I kind of lost it like I did this time,” Elliot said in court.
“I had postpartum depression and they gave me medicine for it. I was having a really bad time with sleeping.”
A co-worker of Elliot’s told WKRN that she was in utter “disbelief” that the woman could commit such a heinous act.
“I was in shock, I couldn’t believe that she would do something like this,” Jasmine Emery said.
“She loved [her daughter] more than anything in the world and (she) was her everything. It’s crazy to think that [she] is gone now.”
A GoFundMe has been set up for the child’s father, Jon Elliot, who is a veteran.
The message under the GoFundMe page asks for as many donations as possible to help him with funeral arrangements, as his “small disability check” won’t be able to cover everything.
“His daughter brought her daddy a bunch of coloring book pictures she colored for him to hang up on the wall of his hospital room – a couple hours later she was killed,” a friend of Jon’s wrote.
Brandi Elliot was refused bond, and her next hearing will take place on August 12.
