One-year-old baby girl found dead in hearse as funeral home staff make horror discovery
A sick mum is accused of strangling her one-year-old baby girl with a "thick rope string" and dumping her body in the back of a funeral home hearse.
Terica Pearl is facing murder charges after her daughter's body was discovered at West Gadsden Funeral Home on Saturday. An employee initially thought a doll was inside the hearse, but was left horrified after discovering it was a child's body.
They called emergency services and discovered the remains were found strangulated with a "thick rope string", according to court documents. Pearl was arrested by police on Sunday and charged with capital murder, according to court records. It comes as a British man was charged after 'trying to drown his daughter-in-law on dream family holiday.'
The funeral home owner, Dantez Robinson, has organised a vigil for baby Blessence, who was close to turning two. "My heart fell to my feet,' the funeral owner told WVTM.
'I have young ones. I have two kids at the age of 4 and 7. To get the phone call, my heart was shattered, shattered into a million pieces.'
Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford described Blessence's death as a 'tough case for everyone involved.'
'I'm proud of the way our police department went after the truth and got it done. An arrest doesn't take away the hurt, but it does mean we're one step closer to justice for this child,' he told the outlet.
It comes after a 69-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly tried to put a "chemical-laced handkerchief" over the face of a 13-year-old boy at a street corner.
Willie Cowart, from Boston, is accused of the "bizarre" chemical assault after he approached the boy on the streets of Roxbury on July 28, just after midday.
The teenager was waiting to be picked up "when an older man wearing a Hawaiian shirt approached, poured an unknown liquid on a red handkerchief, and tried to put the handkerchief over his mouth." The boy, who did not want to be identified, has been left "shaken" by the chemical attack, according to his parents
"It's basically like facing your biggest fear. Like the way the guy was looking too," the teen told WBZ-TV. "My heart was beating fast and stuff. I was really scared."
The teenager has been ordered not to go anywhere without his parents' supervision following the scary attack. "I can't go outside. My mum told me until I'm 20, to go outside by myself when school is finished, I can't stay after school," he said.
Police searched the suspect's car and found chemical cleaning agents inside. "This is a strange, and extremely disturbing, set of facts," Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement Monday.
"It doesn't take much imagination to appreciate how frightening it was for this young man to be standing on a street corner and suddenly be accosted in such a bizarre manner. I'm grateful that he suffered no apparent injuries."
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