A Florida man has been accused of drowning his 17-month-old daughter to punish his wife for seeking a divorce.

The trial of the father, Jeremy Main, began Monday in connection with the brutal murder of his daughter, Makenzie Main, who was found dead in a bathtub in the family's Lake County home in 2017, Crime Online reported.

After killing the toddler, Jeremy called his wife, Holly Farrington, and told her: "You're going to have a bad day," Daily Commercial reported. The woman immediately called 911. The deputies found the baby, wearing a diaper, lying face down in the bathtub.

Jeremy also reportedly told Farrington that he tried to kill himself but failed.

"And he went to telling me how he tried to kill himself. You know, he tried to kill himself like his dad, and that he'd tried to slit his wrists, but he was unsuccessful," Farrington said. "But that he was successful in that he was going to give me my divorce, but that I wouldn't have Makenzie, that she was no longer with us."

Jeremy later drove to Sumter County police substation and told the officers: "I killed my daughter and failed to kill myself." He told investigators that he "ruined" his life and made "a big mistake." He said he was upset after Farrington asked for a divorce. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Jeremy and Farrington reportedly got married in 2015. Farrington labeled Jeremy an "underachiever" and said he was growing paranoid and controlling. Despite all these, she told investigators that she never expected him to kill their daughter.

"Throughout 20 years, you think you've seen the worst of the worst, then you see something like this, and you wonder what would take a person's humanity to do something like that," Lake County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Fred Jones said. "It's hard on the detectives down there, hard on the crime scene investigators, the road patrol guys. We are all mothers and fathers, and it impacts us."

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Representational image. Pixabay
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