LAWNDALE : Man Held in Killing of Live-In Girlfriend

A Lawndale man was booked on murder charges Monday night after allegedly killing his live-in girlfriend in front of her 8-year-old daughter and leaving the woman’s body in a bathtub for three days.

Thomas Anthony Smith, 29, was being held without bail in the murder of Sheri Carriger, 28, whose nude body was found in a half-filled tub at the apartment she shared with Smith and her two children, sheriff’s spokeswoman Angie McLaughlin said.

Smith called deputies and confessed that he had beaten and strangled Carriger three days earlier and had kept Carriger’s daughter and 5-year-old son from leaving the apartment, McLaughlin said. Deputies were met at the door by the girl, who told them, “Mom is in the tub, I can’t look at her again,” she said. Both children were placed in the care of the county Department of Children’s Services.