A capital murder charge has been dismissed against a Watauga father accused of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2015 after prosecutors learned that the girl’s young brother had admitted causing his sister’s death. Anthony Michael Sanders, 33, had been accused of suffocating his daughter, Ellie Mae Sanders, while caring for her and his 5-year-old son at the family’s Watauga home on Dec. 12, 2015. Investigators had theorized that Sanders held his hand over his daughter’s mouth, perhaps because he was upset that the girl had interrupted him as he played computer games. Sanders had denied harming his daughter, telling Watauga police investigators that he had found his daughter not breathing after his wife had returned home and his son had reported to them that Ellie was asleep and would not wake up. Anthony Michael Sanders had been jailed on a capital murder charge since April 2016. The Star-Telegram reported that the girl was found with some bruises and two bite marks, but Sanders’ attorney said any further charges would be up to the district attorney. “It’s my understanding that it’s over; there will be no more charges coming out of it.” 
 
 ‘Unable to move the pillow’ 
 
 According to court documents, the case started to unravel on Aug. 23 after Ellie’s mother, Cassie Wright, told prosecutor Dale Smith in a phone call that her now 7-year-old son had told her that he was responsible for his sister’s death. But the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports prosecutors recently learned the boy, now 7, had told his mother that he had hit his sister with a pillow and the pillow was too heavy to remove from the girl's head.
– A North Texas father charged with his 2-year-old daughter's murder has seen the case dropped after his 7-year-old son made a stunning admission, prosecutors say. Investigators—who initially believed 33-year-old Anthony Sanders suffocated his daughter, possibly when she interrupted him playing computer games on Dec. 12, 2015—say Sanders' son admitted to causing his sister's death while their father cared for them at a home in the Fort Worth suburb of Watauga, per Fox News. Sanders' son, who at the time reportedly told his father the toddler was asleep and wouldn't wake up, was then just 5 years old, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Sanders, who had maintained his innocence, had been in jail since April 2016 but was released days after his Sept. 11 trial was to have commenced following a phone call between prosecutors and the mother of Sanders' kids, Cassie Wright. On Aug. 23, Wright said her son had admitted to hitting 2-year-old Ellie with a pillow with a heavy object inside. In an interview on Aug. 29, the boy told prosecutors he had rolled the pillow onto Ellie's head but couldn't get it off. It remains unclear how Ellie suffered bruises and what appeared to be adult bite marks found afterwards on her body, but Sanders' lawyer says "it's my understanding that [the case is] over; there will be no more charges coming out of it."