Miami Herald

Woman admits hitting, strangling and burying man in yard, Miami Gardens cops say

- BY MICHELLE MARCHANTE AND CHARLES RABIN mmarchante@miamiheral­d.com crabin@miamiheral­d.com Michelle Marchante: 305-376-2708, @TweetMiche­lleM

Clio Marcia Trice was up front about the atrocities that she has been accused of committing.

First, the Miami Gardens woman told her neighbors she hit the older man she had been living with for the past 14 years in the head with an object, according to police. Then, she said, she strangled him. Alarmed, the neighbor called police.

When police arrived they made a gruesome discovery: An 81-year-old man buried in a shallow grave under a plank in her backyard, the area swarming with flies above the partially decomposed corpse.

“Clio Marcia Trice adname. mitted to killing and burying the victim,” police wrote in her arrest affidavit. “She also advised that she had been planning to turn herself in.”

Trice, 50, was arrested and charged with seconddegr­ee murder. She was denied bond and is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight correction­al center. Police haven’t released the victim’s They said he was 81 years old.

Miami Gardens police believe the bizarre incident ended tragically for the man at about 8:30 p.m. last Friday.

On Tuesday, it remained unclear just what the relationsh­ip was between the duo whose age differenti­al is more than three decades. A neighbor told WPLG-ABC 10 they were married.

“I usually see her husband outside on the veranda. But then a couple days, I haven’t seen him,” neighbor Carlos Savizon told the television station. “Apparently, she couldn’t keep the secret much longer.”

Police, though, aren’t so sure. They said Trice told them she had been living with the man since 2008. She said at first they just dated. But the longer it went on, it became more like a father-and-daughter situation. Miami-Dade marriage records don’t show anyone matching Trice’s name as married.

Police said they first made contact with Trice in the front yard of her home at 270 NW 194th Ter., late afternoon Monday and that she immediatel­y admitted to killing and burying the man. They found him in a shallow grave, police said.

She told them, police said, that when the couple argued in the past, she would just walk away. No motive was offered.

POLICE SAID THEY FIRST MADE CONTACT WITH CLIO MARCIA TRICE IN THE FRONT YARD OF HER HOME ON MONDAY AFTERNOON AND SHE IMMEDIATEL­Y ADMITTED TO KILLING AND BURYING THE 81-YEAR-OLD MAN. THEY FOUND HIM IN A SHALLOW GRAVE, POLICE SAID.

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