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Sheriff Marcos Lopez delivers the report on an Orange County woman found early Sunday morning in Poinciana wanted on an Orange County warrant.
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office said a woman, wanted on an arrest warrant in Orange County, made her children drink bleach in an attempt to kill them, but they managed to save one when deputies found them near a Poinciana church early Sunday morning.
Sheriff Marcos Lopez said Joanne Zephir will be charged with attempted murder and aggravated child abuse, pending the Medical Examiner's report.
Over the weekend, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office put out a BOLO (be on the lookout) for a woman suspected of an aggravated battery. Her phone indicated she was in an area of a park in Poinciana. Osceola patrol units made contact with Zephir in the parking lot of Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church on Old Pleasant Hill Road shortly after midnight Sunday. Zephir 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 a hospital, where the 3-year-old died. The 8-year-old was transferred to the care of a family member, according to Lopez
She was transported to the Osceola Sheriff's Office, in regard to the Orange warrant, an outstanding attempted murder and aggravated battery warrant possibly in connection with a stabbing. At the Sheriff's Office she said she told a family member she would turn herself into police regarding the Orange County matter, but first wanted "to have time with her children."
Lopez said she later called the family member to say the youngest child was dead, the older child would die, and she was going to kill herself, that she made the children drink bleach — a bottle of it was found in the trunk of her car.
As to why, Lopez reported Zephir said the victim in Orange County put a "voodoo spell" on her making her harm her children.
The collaboration between Osceola and Orange County Sheriff's department remains an active investigation.
