Shawn Morgan charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and tampering with evidence. He admitted killing Breeann Rodriguez and tossing her body into a floodway ditch. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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A father of three confessed he used a plastic bag to strangle a 3-year-old girl.

Shawn Morgan — charged over the weekend with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and tampering with evidence — admitted killing Breeann Rodriguez and tossing her body into a floodway ditch, authorities said.

The 43-year-old suspect said, “It felt like it took an hour for the girl to die,” according to a probable cause affidavit released Monday.

Morgan told authorities he encountered the girl in his backyard in the small town of Senath, about 200 miles from St. Louis. She was climbing on a ladder to his pool.

He grabbed her and brought her into his house, where he killed her, the steel factory worker reportedly told police. He then put her into the same bag he used to kill her and dropped it over a railing along Missouri 164 and into a floodway ditch.

The girl’s remains, however, have yet to be found.

“We’re dragging the ditches, have helicopters and dogs out there searching,” Dunklin County Sheriff Bol Holder told ABC News. “We’re making every effort to find her.”

Little Breeann vanished Aug. 6. She had been outside riding her pink bicycle with her 5-year-old brother when she disappeared.

DN