Woman Breaks Mother’s Neck

A woman who was reunited with her mother 40 years after being given up for adoption was convicted Tuesday of breaking the woman’s neck.

Constance Agnes Miller was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the slaying of her 83-year-old mother, Antoinette Smith, after they argued about Miller’s medications and the name her mother called her by.

Miller, 61, admitted killing her mother in a call to an emergency dispatcher.

She said she had taken an overdose of sedatives the previous night, then accused her mother of stealing her pills. She said she hit her mother because she was trying to knock the pills out of her mouth.

Miller told police she was also angry with her mother because Smith called her “Agnes,” the name she was given at birth, instead of “Connie.”

Miller and Smith were separated from 1935 to 1975 after Smith gave up Miller for adoption. They were reunited when Miller used Social Security information to locate her mother in Hartford, Conn.