'Broken' mum shared grief over four-year-old daughter's death on Instagram - but she had killed her

Stephanie Smith, aged 28, wrote tributes to Zadie Wren Cooper on her social media page when she died in 2016. She received lots of sympathy from people - but then police found the mum was actually responsible for the youngster’s death.

"My beautiful girl. I miss you terribly. Every time it ebbs and allows me a breath, I think, ‘maybe this is it, maybe this is when I feel better.’ But then the wave engulfs me again and I’m back in that bedroom pounding on your chest, willing you to live,” Smith wrote.

The Instagram message was met with an outpouring of sympathy from people, including some who didn’t know her personally, who felt sorry for the apparently grieving mum, according to The Mirror.

In 2016, Smith was living with her daughter in Athens, Alabama, United States, after having separated from her husband. She and regularly shared photos of Zadie online, including many selfies of them together, where she called her daughter her "little sugar bear” in the captions.

On Independence Day 2016, July 4, 911 responders received a call from Smith in which she told them that her little girl was unresponsive and not breathing. She claimed that when she went to check on Zadie, she had found her trapped behind her bed and the bedroom wall and had become starved of oxygen. The girl was rushed to hospital but she was determined to be brain dead and died three days later.

Her life support was withdrawn on July 7 and she died surrounded by her family. Smith wrote about her supposed pain at her loss on a blog she set up after her death called Living Without Z. She wrote: "Her smile could light the world. Her laugh made me feel whole. Without her, I am merely the shell of a broken mother with eternally aching arms.”

Smith also continued to share many photos of Zadie on her Instagram page and also shared many posts where she admitted to struggling with mental health issues. In an October 2016 post titled "shame," the mum expressed how she was ashamed she could not keep Zadie safe.

She also appeared to be full of guilt and worry. "My daughter died in my care,” she wrote. “She died not more than 20ft from me in the next room . . . I fear I’m wearing a shirt that says, ‘I failed as a mother!’ It’s like everyone who passes me instantly knows."

Then, nine months after Zadie’s death, Smith walked into a police station and asked to speak to a detective. She then shockingly confessed to having killed her daughter and said that she had placed a pillow over her face and smothered her.

When she realised Zadie had stopped moving and wasn't breathing, she called 911 and tried to resuscitate her. When asked why she killed her daughter, she claimed that she had missed medication for a psychiatric condition she had which had played a significant part in her actions.

When then asked why she had lied about the circumstances of her daughter’s death and hadn’t admitted to the crime at the time of the investigation, she claimed to have been afraid of the consequences. She went on to blame her actions on a blackout, but Limestone County Sheriff's Department officers did not believe her.

"She knew exactly what she was doing," they said. Smith was taken into custody and charged with capital murder, a charge that carries the death penalty in Tennessee. She pleaded guilty to felony murder to avoid the death penalty, however. She was then sentenced to a life term in August 2020 following delays in legal proceedings due to Covid-19.