A 6-year-old boy was found dead in his Florida home by deputies after a school resource officer called for a welfare check, St. Lucie Sheriff Richard Del Toro said during a press conference Friday.
The boy’s mother Rhonda Paulynice, 31, allegedly told investigators she “was trying to exorcise demons” from her son Ra’myl Pierre, when he died, Del Toro said.
Paulynice has her first court appearance on Saturday and is being held on no bond on a second-degree murder charge, Lieutenant Andrew Bolonka, director of communications for the sheriff’s office, told Newsweek by phone Saturday.
She was given a total of $150,000 bond for two additional charges, failure to report a death and altering the body after death, according to Bolonka.
Newsweek has reached out to the child’s school for a statement via email on Saturday during non-working hours.
The Context
Ra’myl was last seen at school on May 14 and is believed to have been dead 12 days before he was found, according to Del Toro.
Del Toro added that law enforcement has been called to the home several times since January for domestic disputes involving the mother and her sister, but there were never any domestic issues reported that included the son.
Police had gone to the house just a day before the child was believed to have died for a medical call, he said.
What To Know
When the first deputies arrived on the initial welfare check call, Paulynice took them into the bedroom where the child was found deceased on the bed.
“She let them into the house,” Bolonka told Newsweek. “She walked them into the house and pointed them into the bedroom.”
Additional resources were then called to the scene, including the medical examiner who was unable to determine the manner of death at the home.
Investigators discovered Paulynice’s alleged motive while interviewing her after her son’s body was found.
“What we did learn in speaking with the mother is she believed she was being told by God to basically exorcise demons inside the child’s body, and when the child had stopped moving, they basically passed away,” Del Toro said during Friday’s press conference. “At that point, she felt the child had been released of those demons and was waiting for him to basically come back.”
Detectives believe the child died on May 18, the last day Paulynice said she spoke with him.
“That’s when we believe the homicide occurred and that she was responsible for the child’s death,” Del Toro said.
Despite having responded to the home previously, there was no indication that the mother was a danger to her child.
“There was nothing that we found in our in our databases, that was related to any kind of issues with the mother and the child,” Bolonka told Newsweek on Saturday.
What People Are Saying
Lieutenant Andrew Bolonka, director of communications for the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, told Newsweek by phone Saturday: “Whenever it comes down to children, it becomes a very difficult crime scene. It really affects all the people, from the dispatcher all the way down to the last responding medical examiner on scene, and everybody in between.”
St. Lucie Sheriff Richard Del Toro said during Friday’s press conference: “Today, I want to express our sincere condolences to the entire family who love this child. Our sincere condolences, thoughts and prayers are also with all of his classmates and his teachers and faculty staff and school districts. From what I understand, this kid just lit the room up and was loved by everybody, so they’re all going to be having a very difficult time.”
He later added: “Being a parent, being out on a scene like that, seeing a 6-year- old child that was killed for no other reasons other than just someone being purely evil, it’s hard.”
What Happens Next
Detectives from the sheriff’s office were still at the home investigating the scene on Saturday afternoon, Bolonka told Newsweek.
Other members of the department are at the medical examiner’s office as it performs an autopsy to determine the child’s cause of death.
Del Toro said that those investigators involved with the tragedy will have access to treatment to deal with the trauma from responding to the death.
“We get exposed to a great deal of trauma in his job, and that trauma can have lasting effects on you,” Del Toro explained. “That’s why it’s so important that we make sure that we get our deputies, officers and other first responders and firefighters, state attorneys who come to scenes, get them the counseling that they need.”
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