A mother in Florida is believed to have killed her son to “exercise demons out of the child’s body,” a sheriff said in what he described as a particularly distressing case for the law enforcement involved.

Rhonda Paulynice, 41, has been charged with second degree murder, failure to report a death, and altering a dead body, St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard Del Toro said during a news conference on Friday.

The victim, Ra’myl Pierre, 6, was found on May 30, but he is believed to have been dead since May 18.

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A school resource officer at Samuel Gaines Academy reportedly received a tip on May 30, that a student, Pierre, had not been in class since May 14. A deputy subsequently drove to his known residence on the 2500 block of Bedford Drive in Fort Pierce shortly after 10 a.m.

According to Del Toro, Paulynice was in the driveway and led the deputy into the home. It was here that the deputy found the child dead “lying on his bed.” Detectives quickly responded. As of Friday, a cause of death was not known. An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday.

Detectives learned the mother last spoke to her son on May 18, when they believe she killed him.

“What we did learn in speaking with the mother is she believed she was being told by God to basically exercise demons out of the child’s body,” Del Toro said. “And when the child had stopped moving and basically passed away, at that point, she felt the child had been released of those demons and was waiting for him to basically come back at that time.”

The interview process proved to continue to be revealing.

“I have not spoke[n] to the mother myself. What we do know, though, is that she had a lot of highs and lows during the investigation, you know, from laughing at different times at the scene to crying,” the sheriff added. “So, like I said, a lot of different, lot of different ends of the spectrum.”

Del Toro also revealed that his deputies had been to the same address before, as recently as May 17, the day before Pierre is believed to have died, due to a “medical issue” Paulynice was having, but never for the child.

“There have been some domestic issues in the past, all the way back to January, involving the mother and a sister who once lived at the home, but nothing involving the child that will lead us to where we’re at today,” he added.

“I’m devastated, I’m sick to my stomach,” Theresa Sienkiewicz, a neighbor, reportedly told West Palm Beach-based CBS affiliate WPEC.

Del Toro took a moment to recognize who Pierre was as a human being and express condolences to everyone in his life.

“From what I understand, this kid just lit the room up and was just loved by everybody, and so they’re all going to be having a very difficult time getting through this,” he said. “But you know, this is the first, the first steps we got to take to make sure … justice gets done in this case, and then we can heal from there.”