Hiki
08-13-2008, 08:25 AM
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24170010-401,00.html
A toddler was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, because he would not say "amen" after meals.
Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged with first-degree murder yesterday after her son's remains were found in a suitcase dumped in a shed.
Philadelphia police said three other members of 1 Mind Ministries, including cult leader Queen Antoinette, have also been charged with murder.
Court documents show children taken away from cult members told investigators that members stopped feeding Javon in December, 2006, in part because the boy refused to say "amen" after dinner. Members also viewed Javon as a "demon".
Cult members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing and the boy died in his mother's arms.
An unnamed informant told police that, after Javon died, Antoinette left the boy's body in a room for more than a week, claiming: "God was going to raise Javon from the dead".
Afterward, Antoinette burned his clothing and a mattress and placed his body in a green suitcase, which she would periodically open and spray with disinfectant to mask the odour, police claim in the court documents.
In early 2007, the group members left Baltimore for Philadelphia.
They left the green suitcase and other luggage inside a shed belonging to a man they befriended and relocated to Brooklyn, New York.
Police recovered the suitcase in April after they received a tip-off from the confidential informant.
The remains of a small child were inside. DNA tests are pending to confirm the boy's identity.
Javon would have been about 19 months old when police say the cult stopped feeding him.
Ramkissoon, 21, was being held in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Centre, and a bail review was postponed until later today. Her public defender declined to comment.
Ramkissoon's family said she should not be held responsible for the death.
"She had no control over that situation at all," her stepfather Craig Newton said.
Ramkissoon's mother Seeta Khadan-Newton said it wasn't her daughter's decision not to feed the boy.
"My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson," she said.
"Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions."
According to court documents, Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born. Ramkissoon's mother last saw her daughter in April 2006.
She later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that "the cult leaders" were preventing her from contacting her daughter.
Religious people never cease to amaze me.
A toddler was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, because he would not say "amen" after meals.
Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged with first-degree murder yesterday after her son's remains were found in a suitcase dumped in a shed.
Philadelphia police said three other members of 1 Mind Ministries, including cult leader Queen Antoinette, have also been charged with murder.
Court documents show children taken away from cult members told investigators that members stopped feeding Javon in December, 2006, in part because the boy refused to say "amen" after dinner. Members also viewed Javon as a "demon".
Cult members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing and the boy died in his mother's arms.
An unnamed informant told police that, after Javon died, Antoinette left the boy's body in a room for more than a week, claiming: "God was going to raise Javon from the dead".
Afterward, Antoinette burned his clothing and a mattress and placed his body in a green suitcase, which she would periodically open and spray with disinfectant to mask the odour, police claim in the court documents.
In early 2007, the group members left Baltimore for Philadelphia.
They left the green suitcase and other luggage inside a shed belonging to a man they befriended and relocated to Brooklyn, New York.
Police recovered the suitcase in April after they received a tip-off from the confidential informant.
The remains of a small child were inside. DNA tests are pending to confirm the boy's identity.
Javon would have been about 19 months old when police say the cult stopped feeding him.
Ramkissoon, 21, was being held in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Centre, and a bail review was postponed until later today. Her public defender declined to comment.
Ramkissoon's family said she should not be held responsible for the death.
"She had no control over that situation at all," her stepfather Craig Newton said.
Ramkissoon's mother Seeta Khadan-Newton said it wasn't her daughter's decision not to feed the boy.
"My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson," she said.
"Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions."
According to court documents, Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born. Ramkissoon's mother last saw her daughter in April 2006.
She later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that "the cult leaders" were preventing her from contacting her daughter.
Religious people never cease to amaze me.