Woman kills 6-year-old son, thinking she was ‘casting out demons’
A 6-year-old child was found dead in his Florida home on Friday, and his mother, who has been charged in connection with his death, believed she was told to “cast demons out of the child’s body,” the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said, NBC News reported.
Sheriff Richard Del Toro Jr. said the body of the child, Ra’Mil Pier, was found in his bed at the family’s Fort Pierce home around 10 a.m. after school officials requested a Social Security check.
His 31-year-old mother, Rhonda Paulinis, was charged Friday with second-degree murder and failure to report a death, Toro said.
“We learned from talking to the mother that she believed that God was telling her to cast the demons out of the child’s body,” he said at a news conference. “And when the child stopped moving and practically died, that’s when she felt that the child had been freed from those demons.”
When the assistant arrived at the home, Toro said, Paulinis met him at the front door and escorted him into the house, where the boy was found dead in his bedroom, on his bed. The cause and manner of death were not immediately known, and Toro said an autopsy would be performed.
The sheriff’s office was at the nursing home, but Toro said there was no information about the mother or the child. He said the last call about the mother’s health was answered on May 17, the day before investigators believe the murder occurred.
Toro said there had been some domestic problems at the home in the past involving the mother and her sister, who no longer live there, but nothing involving the child. He added that sheriff’s detectives interviewed the mother on Friday.
Toro said investigators believe the child had been dead in his room since May 18, but he said an autopsy should help clarify the situation. He said no one else was in the house besides Paulinis and the boy.