Steven Coleman
32-year-old Steven Coleman was last seen on 16 August Baytown Police Department

A Texas woman is accused of fatally shooting and then dismembering her boyfriend with a machete, according to court documents.

Cierra Alexis Sutton, a 30-year-old from Baytown, is charged with murder in connection with the death of 32-year-old Steven Coleman, who was last seen on the evening of 16 August. Sutton admitted to others that she shot Coleman in the head while he slept following an argument, investigators said.

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Sutton then allegedly hacked his body into smaller pieces with a machete because it was too heavy for her to carry. The woman disposed of Coleman's body parts in various dumpsters of her apartment complex.

According to ABC 13, a male torso was found on 22 August in a Chambers County landfill that receives trash from throughout Baytown and Pasadena.

The torso has yet to be positively identified as Coleman's but investigators say some key physical characteristics match the victim.

Investigators said Coleman's credit cards were used at a Walmart in Harris County after he was reported missing. The woman caught on surveillance video using Coleman's card to buy duct tape and a mattress pad matched Sutton's description, ABC 13 reported.

Sutton and other men were seen by witnesses moving furniture out of Coleman's apartment on 20 August. Four days later, investigators found that most of the furniture had been moved out of the apartment.

Crime scene investigators, however, found blood in several rooms and in Sutton's jeep. One of Coleman's friends reportedly told detectives that Coleman "told her on numerous occasions that if he was ever to go missing, she needed to make sure police looked into [Sutton] as the cause," court documents stated.

Investigators attempted to interview Sutton but she failed to show up. Police were tipped off after a third party said she allegedly spoke openly about the murder both others, ABC 13 reported. She also allegedly told friends that her 10-year-old daughter was in the apartment at the time, KHOU reported.

Sutton was taken into custody on Thursday (14 September).