A southern Illinois woman has been charged with first-degree murder in the apparent suffocation death of her 4-year-old daughter.
A St. Clair County judge on Tuesday set bail at $1 million for Mary B. Lockett of Dupo. The judge entered a not guilty plea on her behalf and ordered she be appointed an attorney.
Officers were called to Lockett's home Sunday on a report of a girl who was unconscious and not breathing. Her daughter, Emily Rose Perrin, was pronounced dead at a hospital in St. Louis.
The St. Louis County Medical Examiner's office confirmed it performed an autopsy Monday, but it declined to reveal the girl's preliminary cause of death.
Lockett is accused in court documents of causing the girl's death by intentionally impeding her breathing.
Emily would've celebrated her fifth birthday Monday.
