CINCINNATI, July 21 -- A bizarre plot to take hostages at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville reportedly led to the slaying of an 86-year- old Cincinnati woman, authorities said Friday. Mincey Meece, 16, and Theresa Frasure, 22, both of Cincinnati, are accused of the July 13 suffocation of Frasure's landlady, Stella Ellison.
Frasure was indicted Friday on an aggravated murder charge and ordered held in lieu of $200,000 bond. A July 31 juvenile court hearing was scheduled to determine whether the teenager should be tried as an adult. A police recording of Meece's confession played Thursday in juvenile court provided details of the suspects' plan. Meece said she and Frasure, who lived in an apartment above Ellison's residence, visited the elderly woman that night to ask for $11 cab fare to Cheviot, where Meece was staying after running away from her parents' home. After Ellison refused to give them the money, the suspects planned to kill her. 'We decided we wouldn't take all of her money,' Meece said on the tape recording. 'We would take just enough to get us to Tennessee.' Meece said she hit Ellison's head with a clock and then held a pillow over her face for 15 minutes. Meece said Frasure told her: 'Make sure you hit her hard enough to where we don't have to hit her again.' Detective Robert Wessler told the court the women planned to steal guns from another neighbor and hold people at the 4,000-seat Grand Ole Opry as hostages in a grand robbery. Meece said she and Frasure also wanted to force officials to bring country music singer Reba McEntire to the theater so they could meet her.
