Tuesday, 12 Aug, 2008 Current Events

A 19 month Philadelphia boy, who was found dead inside a suitcase, was starved by religious group members, including his mother because he wouldn't pray after meals.

Three members of the cult called 1 Mind Ministries and the toddler's mother were charged with first-degree murder.

The investigation revealed that Javon Thompson, almost 19 months old died in his mother's arms after he was not fed since December 2006. Police found the suitcase with the remains of the child in April 2007, after they received confidential information. According to court documents, members of religious group did not seek for medical care, letting Javon die of hunger.

Ria Ramkissoon, 21 year old mother of the child was placed in psychiatric ward of Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Centre, where she remains until the bail review will take place.

Three other members of the religious group - Queen Antoinette, 40 year old, Marcus Cobbs, 21 and Trevia Williams, 21 were kept in custody after the arrest in May in NY. Steven Bynum, another alleged member of the cult has not been arrested yet.

Ramkissoon's family claims that their daughter was a victim and could not control the situation. Seeta Khadan-Newton, the mother of Ramkissoon is convinced that her daughter was not allowed to feed the baby by the group members. The grandmother of the boy sued for custody of the child after the religious group leaders did not let her contact the daughter since April 2006.

Two school-age children, who were taken away from the cult, told police that Javon was not fed by members of the groups since December 2006, because he refused to say "amen" after meals and was considered by others as "a demon".

Queen Antoinette, one of the members left the child's body in the room for more than a week, saying that "God was going to raise Javon from the dead." Then she placed his body in a suitcase, disinfecting it from time to time to disguise the odor from the body.

In the beginning of 2007 the religious group moved away to Philadelphia, leaving the suitcase and other luggage to a man they met while being there and then left Philadelphia for New York.

Source: The Associated Press

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