‘Voodoo spells’ blamed in mum’s shock admission after ‘child, 3, dies and injures sibling when she forces her to drink bleach’

A MOTHER accused of forcing her daughters, three and eight, to drink bleach before the youngest died has blamed a “voodoo curse” on her actions, police say.

Joanne Zephir, 36, admitted giving her children bleach and drinking herself in a Mother’s Day murder-suicide attempt, according to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.

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Police found her and her three-year-old child unconscious in a car in a parking lot near a church in the central Florida town of Poinciana.

The eight-year-old was reportedly found on the roadway near the church.

The three-year-old later died in hospital and the eight-year-old was handed over to a family member.

Police had been searching for Zephir on an outstanding warrant for aggravated assault and attempted murder in Orange County.

Zephir was at a family member’s house before police located her and she had reportedly claimed she would turn herself in, but wanted to spend time with her children first.

“She took her two children and left the family member’s home,” Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez said in a news conference on Tuesday.

“A few hours later, she called a family member and told her that she had killed her three-year-old and that the eight-year-old was going to die too, and then she would kill herself,” Lopez said.

Zephir allegedly told police that her reason for making her children drink bleach was because “the Orange County victim must have cast a voodoo spell on her, causing her to harm her children,” Lopez added added.

The sheriff’s office is reportedly planning to charge Zephir with attempted murder and child molestation once the autopsy results are in.