Woman charged with killing adopted son, tied boy’s arms, threw him into pool

Homicide detectives with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida arrested and charged 36-year-old Patricia Saintizaire, of Davenport, with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and tampering with a witness in the death of her 4-year-old son who she adopted from Haiti.
The child was brought to the United States and adopted by Saintizaire in April 2023. Deputies were notified on May 2 by staff at Orlando Health Medical Center that a 4-year-old child died under what appeared to be suspicious circumstances. The child’s body was taken to the District 9 Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. The medical exam at the hospital revealed an abdominal bleed that emergency surgery could not rectify. Detectives learned that the child was first brought to Heart of Florida hospital in Davenport by Saintizaire, but due to his significant injuries, he was flown to hospital in Orlando. Saintizaire repeatedly denied to detectives that she ever used physical discipline as punishment. Her husband told detectives that he does not discipline the children, but that she does. During initial interviews with the child’s older teen brother, he denied being abused or witnessing abuse. However, after placing that teenager into custody of Florida Department of Children and Families, he then said to detectives that Saintizaire told him, “When they ask you something, say nothing so I don’t get in trouble.” He also alleged that she threatened to kill him with a gun. Detectives also learned that when the victim got home from school recently, the older brother went to another room for approximately two hours and did not see or hear what happened to the 4-year-old. Saintizaire then told the brother to bring food to the victim, but he noted that the child was unable to walk on his own and struggled to sit up at that time. Saintizaire told the older brother that the victim was “faking it” and urged him to feed him. The victim then became unresponsive and the older brother began performing CPR, telling Saintizaire they needed to take him to the hospital.