A Florida woman adopted a young boy from Haiti in 2023. He died after just a year of being in her custody, and the details behind his death are almost too sickening to read.
Authorities of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said they received notice from the Orlando Health hospital that a young boy died under “suspicious circumstances.’’ That boy turned out to be the 4-year-old son of Patricia Saintizaire, who already had a 16-year-old adopted son, per ABC7.
When the medical examiner’s office performed the boy’s autopsy, they found exactly what made his death suspicious: an irreparable abdominal bleed and evidence of blunt force trauma.
His death was ruled a homicide, per the report.
Investigators said they interviewed Saintizaire to find answers, but she denied using physical force as a form of punishment and discipline. However, interviews from her family spilled the beans on what was really going on in that house before the 4-year-old died.
Read more from ABC7 News:
During initial interviews with the child’s older teenaged brother, he denied being abused or witnessing abuse. However, after placing that child into DCF custody, he then told detectives that Patricia told him “when they ask you something, say nothing so I don’t get in trouble,” and that she threatened to kill him with a gun.
Detectives also learned that when the victim got home from school, the older brother went to another room for approximately two hours, and did not see or hear what happened to the victim. Patricia then told the brother to bring food to the victim. At that time, he noted that the victim was unable to walk on his own, and struggled to sit up on his own. Patricia told the older brother that the victim was “faking it” and to feed him. The victim then became unresponsive. The older brother began performing CPR on the child and then told Patricia they needed to take him to the hospital.
That’s not even all of it. Police said upon searching Saintizaire’s phone, they recovered two surveillance videos: one in which she is seen hitting the boy with an electrical cord and another in which she tosses him into a pool with his hands tied behind his back.
Saintizaire was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and tampering with a witness, the report says.