Mother Appeared 'Calm' to Neighbors as 3-Year-Old Daughter Lay Dying — Then She Allegedly Confessed to Killing Her By Chris Spargo

Residents in one Ohio neighborhood closed out the year on a somber note after a young girl died on New Year’s Eve.

Officers with the Columbus Division of Police arrived to a home in the state’s capital shortly after 5:30 p.m. that evening after a report came in stating that a child was not breathing, WBNS, WSYX and WCMH reported.

Neighbors told WSYX that they watched as officers rushed toward the house and “pretty much kicked the door in” to try and save the victim, who was identified as 3-year-old Cassidy Sakoulos.

During interviews with the outlet, some described Cassidy as a “happy-go-lucky” child and “Scooby Doo fan” who dressed up as a “unicorn princess” for Halloween.

Police at one point came out and told the bystanders to say a prayer for the girl as they prepared to rush her to a local hospital in an ambulance, the outlet reported.

Thirty minutes after officers first responded to the scene, Cassidy was pronounced dead at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, according to WBNS.

Neighbor Tristan Price told WBNS that during those 30 minutes, Cassidy’s mother, Sharon Sakoulos, appeared to be “standing kind of stoic and calm, smoking a cigarette.”

Price added: “Like way too calm.”

Another neighbor told WSYX that the mother appeared “reactionless” while her daughter was fighting for her life inside the home.

Police said after an initial investigation and autopsy that Cassidy’s death was a “homicide motivated by domestic violence,” WCMH reported. Sharon allegedly confessed to the crime and was booked into Franklin County Jail on suspicion of murder.

The 41-year-old made her first court appearance on Friday, Jan. 2, and the outlet reported that the prosecuting attorney said that Sharon “told police it was her intention to kill her daughter and did so by placing a plastic bag over the child’s head.”

The judge set Sharon’s bail at $2 million and ordered that she have no contact with any minor children should she be able to post the funds needed for pretrial release.

That order also extends to her 13-year-old daughter, said the judge, per the outlet. Sharon does not have custody of that child, who lives with her father. That man is not Cassidy’s father, the outlet reported.

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In court on Friday, Sharon was assigned a public defender who did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Court records obtained by PEOPLE show that her next appearance is set for Jan. 9, and that she has yet to enter a plea.