Accused Child Killer Mona Nelson: 'I'm Not A Monster'

Dec. 31, 2010 — -- Mona Nelson, the woman charged with killing 12-year-old Jonathan Foster and burning his body, defended herself against gruesome allegations by arguing that she is a grandmother who loves kids.

"I'm not a monster," she told ABC affiliate KTRK.

"I have five grand kids and I love kids," Nelson said.

Nelson, the mother of 26-year-old twins, has been charged with capital murder and is being held without bond in Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas. Jonathan's body was identified after he vanished on Christmas Eve. His body was so badly burned that he had to be identified using his dental records.

Investigators are not impressed with Nelson's plea that she is not a monster.

"She is a cold, soulless murderer who showed an absolute lack of remorse in taking the life of Jonathan Foster," Houston Police Offer Mike Miller said told a press conference Thursday. "There's only been one or two people I've ever talked to that had eyes like she did; it was pretty cold."

Miller also believes that Jonathan may not be Nelson's first victim.

"Do I believe she's done it before? Yeah, I do. I don't believe she began and ended with the abduction of Jonathan Foster, I don't," Miller said.

Houston Police Department spokesman Kese Smith said, "We believe she acted alone."

From jail, Nelson, 44, defended herself, saying that she was approached by Jonathan's family on Christmas Eve.

Nelson claims that they she knew Jonathan's family and that they stopped by her home and asked her to dump a plastic container in exchange for $20. She said that she was drunk on vodka and never looked to see what was inside the container when she dropped it into a ditch in northeast Houston.

"I didn't know what was in it until they were showing me pictures in the interrogation room," Nelson told KTRK.