At 91, Nellie Hocutt was still thriving. She was known in her Bronx community for her political activism and altruism. She regularly drove friends to church on Sundays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How to Watch<\/p>\n
The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher\u00a0airs Saturdays at 9\/8c. on Oxygen. Watch full episodes on the Oxygen App<\/a>.<\/p>\n In January 2003, concerned neighbors called the police when they noticed her car in her driveway, not the garage, and letters piling up in her mailbox.<\/p>\n Inside her home, officers were horrified to find Nellie found bound to a chair and deceased, according to The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher<\/a>, airing Saturdays at 9\/8c on Oxygen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThen there was a plastic bag over her head, and then they tied it with a scarf,\u201d New York Police Department Bronx Homicide Detective Nicholas Ciuffi said in the Nov. 1 episode titled \u201cShe Fought Back.\u201d \u201cWhat kind of savage can do something like this?\u201d<\/p>\n What happened to Nellie Hocutt?<\/p>\n Originally from the South, Nellie, was \u201cabsolutely a Georgia peach,\u201d said her granddaughter Sonique Graham. \u201cShe taught us about etiquette, how to handle our finances. She encouraged us to be successful women.\u201d<\/p>\n At the crime scene, investigators found that Nellie had been suffocated and strangled. She\u2019d been bound to the chair with telephone wire and cellphone duct tape.<\/p>\n An empty bottle of scotch and a near-empty bottle of red wine were found near the body. Bruises on the front of her legs indicated that she\u2019d been kicking through the brutal ordeal. \u201cNellie,\u201d said Ciuffi, \u201cwas fighting for her life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Nellie Hocutt\u2019s home processed for evidence<\/p>\n There were no signs of forced entry. The perpetrator had used items found in Nellie\u2019s home to subdue and kill her. The brutal nature of the murder led police to suspect a personal element.<\/p>\n The crime scene was processed for fingerprints and other evidence, while police canvassed Nellie\u2019s neighbors. \u201cThey told us that she was very security conscious,\u201d said NYPD Bronx Homicide Commanding Officer Sean O\u2019Toole. \u201cShe wouldn’t open the door for anybody she didn’t know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n What Nellie Hocutt\u2019s autopsy revealed<\/p>\n Nellie\u2019s autopsy revealed a laceration and contusion on her tongue, indicating something had been aggressively forced into her mouth.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her stomach contents showed that she had a significant percentage of alcohol made up of the scotch and wine as well as methanol, a solvent.<\/p>\n Evidence showed that the killer \u201cforced her mouth open and jammed these liquids into her mouth,\u201d said Butcher. \u201cShe was drowning in these fluids. On a scale of bad deaths, this is 1,000.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Added Ciuffi: \u201cThis is torture. Barbaric.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Searching for leads and suspects<\/p>\n As investigators worked the case, they considered a number of possible suspects including Nellie\u2019s relatives as well as a mailman who\u2019d made a false statement about never being in the victim\u2019s home.<\/p>\n \u201cWe looked at a lot of different people,\u201d said Ciuffi. \u201cI looked at all the family members, and a granddaughter\u2019s boyfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n That is par for the course in murder investigations. \u201cIt\u2019s awful to say it,\u201d said Bronx County Assistant District Attorney Christine Scaccia, \u201cbut very often, people who are the victim of homicides are victims from somebody that they know.\u201d<\/p>\n Fingerprints collected at the scene were not a match to any of the possible suspects. The case eventually went cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n A tip cracks the case wide open<\/p>\n In June 2007, four years after Nellie\u2019s brutal murder, police got a tip that cracked the case wide open.\u00a0<\/p>\n A source named Larissa Kirby\u00a0told police that two girls had told her they murdered an elderly woman in the Bronx. She named them: Sparkle Daniel, then 17, and Nadine Panton, then 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n Larissa reported that she was friends with Sparkle, but they had had a falling out over some man, according to The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher. She was sharing what she knew as payback.\u00a0<\/p>\n Detectives learned that Sparkle\u2019s aunt lived near Nellie and knew the victim because of that. The day of the murder, Larissa said, Sparkle and Nadine saw Nellie carrying in groceries. They asked to use the elderly woman\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n \u201cNellie told Sparkle she could use the telephone to call her aunt,\u201d said O\u2019Toole. \u201cShe called her aunt but got no answer. Larissa Kirby told us that at that point, Nadine told her that they were going to rob this lady.\u201d<\/p>\n During the robbery, they realized that Nellie knew them\u2013and decided they had to kill her. \u201cLarissa had no insight,\u201d said Butcher, \u201cas to why Sparkle and Nadine would kill Nellie Hocutt in such an over the top and violent manner.\u201d<\/p>\n Sparkle Daniel and Nadine Panton become prime suspects<\/p>\n Ciuffi reached out to a Daily News editor who agreed to run an article saying that new leads had been found in a four-year-old homicide of an elderly Bronx woman.<\/p>\n Then, detectives enlisted Larissa to call Sparkle and mention that news story. \u201cSparkle makes incriminating statements to Larissa,\u201d said Ciuffi, \u201cand then she says, \u2018I gotta talk to Nadine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When police did background checks on Sparkle, they found she had no criminal history. Nadine had had scrapes with the law before.<\/p>\n Sparkle Daniel and Nadine Panton arrested and tried separately<\/p>\n On July 19, 2007, Sparkle was arrested and fingerprinted. Her print matched one collected from Nellie\u2019s phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was elated when I found out that the print came back to Miss Sparkle Daniel,\u201d said NYPD Crime Scene Investigator Lawrence Walsh, who\u2019d processed the scene. \u201cWhatever small role I played in this, it\u2019s really gratifying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSparkle Daniel confessed to being in the house, but she said that it was Nadine’s idea to do the robbery,\u201d said O\u2019Toole. \u201cShe was kind of threatened by Nadine.\u201d<\/p>\n