MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Miami Gardens police made a grim discovery after executing a search warrant at a home.
According to Miami Gardens police spokeswoman Diana Delgado-Gourgue, officers were dispatched to a home in the 200 block of Northwest 194th Terrace at 5:18 p.m. Monday.
She said a search warrant was eventually obtained and the body of an elderly man was found buried in a shallow grave Tuesday morning.
Clio Marcia Trice, 50, has since been arrested on a second-degree murder charge.
“I saw them putting on the handcuff on her hands,” neighbor Carlos Savizon said.
“I was disappointed to learn what she had done,” he added. “He’s very frail. He walks with a stick lately.”
According to Trice’s arrest report, a neighbor called 911 Monday and told officers that Trice told him she had struck the victim in the head and then strangled him until he died before burying his body in the backyard.
Police said they encountered Trice in the front yard of the home when they arrived and she admitted to killing and burying the victim, identified only as an 81-year-old white man.
A Local 10 News crew was at the scene as officers were seen going in and out of the home.
In the backyard, a wooden plank was found with dirt on top of it, covering the area where the victim’s body was found, authorities said.
Neighbors told Local 10 News that the man and woman were married, but authorities say Trice told them she was in a relationship with the victim, but their relationship developed more into a father-daughter relationship and said they would regularly argue or have physical altercations.
“I know she use to get angry with him every once in a while because he used to make a mess around the house,” David Johnson, a neighbor, said.
She said they had been living together since 2008, the arrest report stated.
Neighbors said Trice had two personalities -- calm and abusive.
“I usually see her husband outside on the veranda, but then a couple days, I haven’t seen him,” Savizon said. “Apparently she couldn’t keep the secret much longer.”
Trice is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond.
Police did not immediately release a possible motive for the killing.