FORT PIERCE, Fla. – A Florida mother is facing a murder charge after deputies said she killed her 6-year-old son during an attempted exorcism.
The boy, Ra’myl Pierre, had been missing from a Fort Pierce elementary school for more than two weeks before his lifeless body was found in his bedroom.
“From what I understand, this kid just lit the room up and was just loved by everybody and so they’re all going to be having a very difficult time getting through this,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard Del Toro said.
Deputies arrested Rhonda Paulynice, 31, and a judge later denied her bond.
“She had a lot of highs and lows during the investigation, from laughing at different times at the scene to crying,” Del Toro said. “We did learn and speaking with the mother, she believed she was being told by God to basically exorcize demons out of the child’s body.”
He added, “When the child had stopped moving and basically passed away, at that point, she felt the child had been released of those demons and was waiting for him to basically come back.”
A deputy showed up at the home Friday after the school reported Ra’myl‘s absence.
“I’m devastated,” a neighbor said. “I’m sick to my stomach.”
Paulynice also faces charges for failure to report a death and altering the boy’s dead body, pointing to evidence that shows she was preserving it.
Authorities believe she killed Ra’myl on May 18.