Left to right: Samantha Neiber, Mason Clarke (Douglas County Sheriff’s Office).
Authorities in Nebraska say a 25-year-old woman helped her boyfriend kill her mother during a violent confrontation at their home, allegedly holding the victim’s wrists down while he suffocated her with a sock after an argument involving a child.
Samantha Neiber, 25, and Mason Clarke, 30, were hosting a barbecue Saturday at their residence in Elkhorn when Samantha’s mother, Jennifer Neiber, got into a dispute with Clarke over Samantha’s child, according to a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office press release and statement shared with Law&Crime.
Investigators said the argument escalated from verbal to physical. According to the sheriff’s office, Clarke forced a sock into Jennifer Neiber’s mouth while Samantha Neiber restrained her mother by holding her wrists to the ground. Omaha Fire Department medics pronounced Jennifer dead at the scene, authorities said.
The sheriff’s office said Jennifer Neiber, 57, had been upset over an issue involving Samantha Neiber’s 3-year-old child, who authorities noted is not Clarke’s biological child.
According to the release, the confrontation began after Samantha’s child had been put to bed, when Jennifer and Clarke argued about the child.
Deputies were called to the home at about 10 p.m. on a report of a “suspicious death.” When they arrived, authorities said they found Clarke and Samantha Neiber sitting on a bed, while Jennifer Neiber was lying dead on the floor in front of them.
Clarke was interviewed by police and then arrested on suspicion of child abuse by neglect without injury and second-degree murder. Samantha Neiber was arrested and charged with accessory to a Class I felony and child abuse by neglect without injury.
The child in question was transported and temporarily placed with a local domestic abuse and child advocacy center known as Project Harmony. It’s unclear what happened to spark the alleged argument between Clarke and Jennifer Neiber. He and Samantha Neiber are being held at the Douglas County Correctional Center in Omaha.
