A Florida mother was charged with murder days after her adopted 4-year-old son died in suspicious circumstances.
Patricia Saintizaire, 36, was on Wednesday charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and tampering with a witness.
On May 2, staff from Orlando Health Hospital alerted police to a 4-year-old boy who had died from suspicious wounds.
The child suffered an abdominal bleed. It was later determined that his liver sustained a deep laceration on it as if it was struck by targeted blunt force trauma.
The boy’s body was covered with bruises and scars indicating he suffered from an ongoing abuse.
Police questioned the boy’s teen brother who said the victim couldn’t walk on his own or sit up on his own before his death.
Saintizaire allegedly told the teen that the boy was “faking it” and asked him to give him food.
However, the child’s condition quickly deteriorated and he became unresponsive leading the teen to perform CPR on him before bringing him to the hospital.
The teen told detectives Saintizaire threatened to kill him with a gun and told him “When they ask you something, say nothing so I don’t get in trouble.”
Surveillance footage from her home allegedly caught at least two disturbing instances of abuse against the child whom she had adopted from Haiti in 2023.
