Left inset: Terica Pearl being led into court by police in Etowah County, Ala. (WBRC). Right inset: Blessence Pearl (West Gadsden Funeral Home). Background: The hearse at the West Gadsden Funeral Home in Gadsden, Ala., where Terica Pearl allegedly discarded 1-year-old Blessence Pearl (WBRC).
An Alabama mother accused of dumping her dead 1-year-old daughter in a hearse at a funeral home earlier this month allegedly began screaming “Oh my god, what have I done?!” while being interviewed by police about the slaying, prosecutors say.
Terica Pearl, 29, of Gadsden, is accused of discarding her daughter, Blessence Pearl, at the West Gadsden Funeral Home sometime between Aug. 8 and Aug. 9 after strangling the toddler with a “thick robe string,” according to local police.
The funeral home”s director says he experienced a “level of shock” that he had never felt before when he found Blessence inside the hearse. Police were called that Saturday morning, Aug. 9, after a groundskeeper went to move the vehicle and located the child’s body in the back, NBC affiliate WVTM reported. City officials and the funeral home director, Dantez Robinson, spoke to AL.com and other outlets about the disturbing discovery before Pearl was arrested the following day.
The woman appeared in court on Aug. 22 in Etowah County on a charge of capital murder, and prosecutors laid out the allegations against her, according to local Fox affiliate WBRC.
“You can see where the string was ripped from the garment,” said Gadsden Police Sgt. Nick Keener, lead investigator, during Pearl’s preliminary hearing about the robe string she allegedly used to kill Blessence.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
Authorities allegedly recovered the robe and surveillance video that shows a woman — identified by prosecutors as Pearl — walking in the area around the West Gadsden Funeral Home the day Blessence was found, clutching a baby in her arms, WBRC reports, citing testimony from the Friday hearing. The footage allegedly shows Pearl walking southbound toward the funeral home at around 2:30 a.m. before she goes out of view. She is seen again about two and a half hours later, walking back without a child, according to cops and prosecutors.
Pearl was reportedly crying during the Friday proceedings as her daughter’s condition was described in court. Prosecutors alleged that Pearl strangled the girl with a robe string with the same thickness as a shoelace. Keener said Pearl allegedly told police that she felt “compelled” to walk to the funeral home that day, claiming she felt Blessence would be safe there, WBRC reports.
Pearl’s attorney, Shaun Malone, argued that there is insufficient evidence to prove her guilt. He requested that state records be released from the Alabama Department of Human Resources related to Blessence and Pearl, which he claimed would shed more light on what happened.
“Those records would be illuminous to how we all got here today,” Malone said, per WBRC.
Gadsden officials have told local outlets that the Pearl case has been “tough” for those involved, including officers.
“To do this,” Robinson told AL.com after Blessence was found, “you’re sick in the head.”
Robinson, who is also the area’s assistant coroner, said he has seen macabre and disturbing things over the years, but this rivals all of it. He plans to lay Blessence to rest using his own money and resources.
“To see something like this really sent me into another level of shock,” he told AL.com. “We want this baby to have justice.”
