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Joanne Zephir, 36, charged with homicide
Osceola Sheriff ’s detectives have obtained an arrest warrant for Joanne Zephir for premeditated murder.
Zephir, currently held in the Osceola County Jail no no bond, was previously charged with attempted murder and aggravated child abuse.
Just after midnight May 8, Zephir, 36, was discovered near Poinciana Pentecostal Church. She and her 3-year-old daughter were unconscious, and her 8-year-old daughter in the road by the church. The children were taken to HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital, where the 3-year-old died.
Findings obtained from the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office indicated the 3-year old’s death was caused by compression of the neck, and ruled the death a homicide. Reports said Zephir had called a family member to say she had cut her husband's stomach and was going to turn herself into Orange County police with the children, but then called again to she was going to kill herself, and that she made the children drink bleach — a bottle of it was found in the trunk of her car.
The brave 8-year-old told detectives after Zephir made the children drink the bleach, the mother called the aunt again. The 8-year-old was given the phone, and the aunt told her to run away from the car toward the road, where Sheriff's deputies found her.
In information from court records, during an interview with detectives afterward, Zephir admitted to giving the children bleach, but "it was not her doing it," stating her husband and his family practice voodoo; Zephir advised she "does not believe in voodoo and is a Christian."
Zephir appeared at an initial hearing on the charges Tuesday.
