The mother's body was discovered in her apartment, police said.
Police in South Carolina are searching a landfill for the body of a 5-year-old girl they believed was killed at the same time as her mother.
Sumter Police Department officers were called Monday by family members to the home of Sharee Bradley, 29, whose body was found in the apartment she shared with her daughter, Nevaeh Lashy Adams. The girl was nowhere to be found, police said.
But under questioning by investigators, suspect Daunte Maurice Johnson, 28, acknowledged killing Bradley and her daughter, according to a police department statement.
Johnson, who was identified as a transient, was acquainted with the mother, police said.
He told investigators he had placed the child's body in a dumpster, the statement said, and officers were combing through debris at a nearby landfill.
"Finding this little girl is first and foremost and we have and will continue to use every resource available to make that happen," Chief Russell Roark said. "Our prayers are with the family and we will continue to assist them throughout this tragic ordeal."
Johnson is charged with one count of murder and is being held without bail at the Sumter County Sheriff's Office Detention Center. He also is a suspect in a Missouri homicide investigation, the statement said.
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