MIAMI (WSVN) - A neighbor says the mother arrested in the deaths of her two children exhibited some bizarre behavior just before police made the deadly discovery.
The pain has been unbearable for everyone. Neighbors have found strength with each other, praying for the children who once lived in the neighborhood.
Miami detectives arrested their mother on Tuesday, accusing her of murder.
“That’s what we’re wondering. …something,” said Edith, a neighbor.
Edith lives upstairs to the family and knows Odette Joassaint.
“Her kids, you know, are always well dressed. I mean, she never failed for those kids,” she said.
Edith expressed it has been difficult for her to recognize the same woman who once lived downstairs to the woman now in court.
“You can tell that that’s not her at all,” said Edith.
She said she had not seen the kids for a few days before the horrific discovery.
“We were all wondering; we don’t hear the kids,” said Edith.
Hours before detectives discovered the bodies that Tuesday night, Edith had spoken to Joassaint.
“She showed me Laura’s book bag, and I said, ‘Where the kids? where the kids?'” she said. “she [Jossaint] goes lift up the book bag and she goes Laura first.”
Edith said Jossaint seemed unusual. She was also having trouble understanding her because of a language barrier.
“She was trying to tell me something, and I looked at her, and I said ‘Where’s the kids? Where, Odette?’ and I offered her some food. She said, ‘Me haven’t eat in three days,'” said Edith.
Officers found the siblings, ages 3 and 5, with their arms, neck and legs tied inside their home.
“She kept saying she was a bad mother, saying, ‘I am bad mother,'” said Edith.
Now, on the outside of the home, lays a symbol of love for those two children.
People have placed candles and stuffed animals to honor them, keeping their memories alive.
“I miss everything because they give me love, I give her love. Now, is the only two I have,” said the father of the children, Frantzy Belval. “She take it from me or God take it from me. Two of them, God or her. I forgive her.”
The Florida Department of Children and Family is still investigating the case.
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