A shocking discovery was made inside a house in the Little Haiti neighborhood in Miami. A 3-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl were found dead inside their own home and their mother Odette Lysse Joassaint was subsequently taken into custody.
According to local news outlet WPBF 25 News, she has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The children’s father, who is estranged from Joassaint, identified the children while speaking to CBS Miami.
“One is Jeffrey, and one’s Laura,” said Frantz Belval. While the Miami Police Department has not revealed details about the nature of their deaths, they did note that the 41-year-old mother had been repeatedly calling 911 beginning around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, but would hang up the phone.
“They were calling but she wasn’t saying much,” Miami-Dade Public Information Officer Michael Vega revealed. Officers were ultimately sent her home in the 100 block of Northeast 75th Street. “The one thing she did say to officers: ‘They’re inside. Go get them. I don’t want them anymore,'” recalled Officer Vega. This is when officers made their way inside the apartment only to find “a female who appeared to be irate or going through a crisis,” Officer Vega told Local 10.
Officers say Joassaint appeared to be hallucinating, Meanwhile, another cop went inside to take a look around and this is when they found Jeffrey and Laura’s bodies on the bed with their legs, arms, and necks tied. The kids were unfortunately pronounced dead at the scene. They immediately untied the kids and began resuscitation efforts while waiting for Miami Fire Rescue crews.
Unfortunately, both kids were pronounced dead at the scene. Joassaint had to be removed from the crime scene on a stretcher. “We have had several calls there in the past year. One of them was domestic violence, another was just trespass, and some disturbance calls. It’s something tragic to see that the person that is supposed to take care of these kids is the person that took their lives,” continued Vega.
Hours following the crime, Joassaint reportedly told officers that she had been struggling financially and believed that her “kids were suffering and that they would suffer less if they were dead.” Commenting on the terrible situation, family friend Darlene Petion told CBS Miami, “You’re a mother, what do you feel? There’s a devil inside of your head.”
The childrens’ father, Belval, wondered what could have happened that resulted in this terrible fate for his kids. “I’m mad. Odette not supposed to do that,” said the man who is beside himself. Joassaint’s friend Hermione Danjour believes that losing her 14-year-old daughter to the Department of Children and Families may have caused this terrible mental breakdown.
“She got another daughter too that is 14 that has not been living with her since December, which means that affected her mental issue,” said Danjour, while her neighbors were plain shocked. “They were always inside the house. They always go to school, like you know, normal kids. I seen them a couple days ago. I said hi to them like I always do — give them fist bumps, but it’s just sad that like … still kind of, like, surprising.”
The investigation continues. Anyone with information regarding the incident is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
Cover image source: YouTube Screenshot | WPBF 25 News
