Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson, and this week on Pushing Up Lilies, I’m diving into the haunting case of Blessence Pearl, an infant whose life was tragically cut short. We’ll walk through the painful details, the investigation that followed, and the emotional journey of those left behind. As a forensic death investigator, I’m always mindful of how delicate and heartbreaking these cases are, especially when it involves the loss of a child. In this episode, we’ll explore the evidence, the challenges investigators faced, and the impact this case had on the community. This one’s heavy, but it's too important not to discuss. Join me as we seek understanding amid the tragedy and remember the precious life of Blessence Pearl. Listener discretion is advised.
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00:06
Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I'm your host, Julie Mattson. Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
00:24
Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey guys, we're back here for another week of Pushing Up Lilies. It has been a super busy week at the medical examiner's office. Days and nights have been slammed.
00:45
I don't know what's going on. School has started and everyone has lost their mind. We have highs and lows during certain times of the year. We had some decomps the last couple of weeks and not so many this past week.
01:04
This past week though have been a lot of people found at home by their family. Not as many decomps. A lot of hospices which we always get. One of the stories that happened this past week I thought it was so strange because we get calls from our dispatch and all they know is what the police tell them when their call originally comes in or they'll hear of course the 911 call.
01:32
I had a call and the dispatcher called and said I have a drowning. So not unusual. The weather in Texas is still warm. A lot of people are still at the lake and swimming in pools and it wouldn't be abnormal for us to have a drowning this time of year.
01:50
We've had some recently, sometimes more than one a day. We prepare ourselves. Okay this is a drowning and probably going. I have to go. I mean, chances are slim that it's anything but a drowning since I've already been given that information.
02:08
So I'm expecting to call the officer and hear about a child that fell in a pool or something. Some catastrophic drowning case. Long story short, it was a female, a young female in her 50s who was sitting on the commode and actually collapsed while she was sitting there.
02:33
I don't like to use the word fall. She fell face forward and her head went into the bathtub. So, you can kind of picture the way I do. Her bathtubs in front of her and some of these bathrooms are super small.
02:48
So, her head went into the bathtub. Well, there was no water in the bathtub. And the bathtub was completely dry. There had not been water in the bathtub, the bathtub was not drained. And so of course, as the officer is telling me his side of the story, after I'd already been told by dispatch that it was a drowning, I have a lot of questions.
03:12
I'm wanting, first of all, is the tub dry? Was there any water in there? Did you have to let it out? If so, was her head submerged? I mean, I asked a lot of questions and come to find out the tub was dry.
03:26
There was never any water in it. Her head just landed in the bathtub. Somehow, between the officer and dispatch and me, that entire story got changed. And that's what we run into a lot of times when we're getting reports.
03:44
We run into it at the hospital. And I think I told you all about this once before, where we're told that someone's driving a completely different vehicle. We're told they're the driver; we're told they're hit head on.
03:59
We're given this humongous story of what happened. And then by the time we talk to family or by the time we talk to DPS who work the accident, it is nothing like the story that we were originally told.
04:14
So, this is why we don't always just interview one person. We do talk to the family, we do talk to the police, we do talk to witnesses. And this is why, because we wanna get the complete story, because it does make a difference.
04:33
Imagine if I had believed that this was a drowning. I would have gotten my car and driven all the way to, I think it was in Dallas. And gotten there and found that I didn't even need to go. And that's why it's always important to me when I call the police initially to get my report that I ask them all those questions.
04:55
because the reality of it is a lot of people don't know when we respond. They don't know why we respond. And they have no idea what the criteria is. So, they just assume it's a dead body and I'm gonna go.
05:10
Many times, I'll get a call that says the police are ready for you to come to the scene and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What scene are we talking about? Where are we, what's going on? And it's a hospice at a nursing home without a nurse present or something, you know?
05:27
And so, we like to get all the information. And I do this before I get to the scene. And the reason is because many times when I get to the scene, it's hectic. Nobody knows who's in charge. Multiple people think they're in charge.
05:45
I, again, get multiple stories from multiple different people. So, I like to talk to the responding officer. who is the first on scene, gets to the scene and then that's the person that calls me. And so, I like to ask them all the questions before confusion hits, before family shows up, before they lose their attention span, or before they get sidetracked by all the other things going on.
06:12
When transport gets there and family shows up and the apartment complex manager's there and here comes maintenance and then a couple of neighbors knock on the door. Stuff just happens and it starts to get busy; it starts to get hectic.
06:27
And so, I like to get all the information before all that takes place. It makes my life easier because I sit down at my computer and I put a lot of my information in before I leave. One reason is because if my doctor wants to look ahead to see what's coming in, he has a little bit of information.
06:48
He knows where I'm going to get the body, he knows why I'm bringing the body in, and he can plan his day if he needs to do an exam on that person that particular day. So, it's just kind of we all have our own way of doing things and many people like to get to the scene and ask the questions.
07:10
Me personally, I like to get as much information as I can before I leave. I'm curious like are y'all like me or y'all more like other people where you feel like you would just want to get there and get all the information because I like to be somewhat organized and like I said I like to sit down and type my report before I leave just so that I've filled in all the blanks and I know what's missing.
07:34
I know what questions still need to be asked when I get there and I don't have to spend a lot of time on saying. I mean the family doesn't want me there. The police are probably ready to leave nine times out of ten by the time they've called me they've been there for two or three hours longer crime scene is involved or if it's the homicide and so I get everything ready before I leave.
08:00
I am ready to walk in, take my pictures, do all the things, and get out of there. And it's not because I'm in a hurry. I still do my job meticulously and I'm very careful that I don't leave any steps out, but I just kind of try to make it as easy on the family.
08:18
We're invading their space. Many times it's not even the home of the person that died. You know it's someone else's home. People die at their family members’ homes and it just disrupts their life and it will continue to disrupt their life.
08:35
But I just like to move on. But this week I want to talk about Blessance Pearl, and I don't know if y'all have heard about her. This is a really recent story. So, this happened on August the 9th of this year.
08:49
It was a quiet Saturday morning. And funeral home staff walked to a hearse that was parked outside of the funeral home. And in Alabama, it's still hot. It's still warm. The air is thick. No breeze whatsoever.
09:04
Funeral home workers opened the hearse expecting nothing. They're starting their day. Shouldn't be anything in there. They spotted what looked like a doll. It looked very lifelike and was not moving.
09:19
And then when they reached in, they realized it wasn't a doll at all. It was actually the body of a child. And it was a little girl. And she was only one year old. Her name was Blessance Pearl. And within hours, the discovery would shake not just Gadsden, but the entire state of Alabama.
09:43
Soon after, the police would accuse her own mother, 29-year-old Terica Pearl of murdering her baby and leaving her body in the hearse. Today, we're looking into this haunting case. We're going to look into the death of Blessance Pearl, the charges against her mother, and in the trail of questions.
10:07
Now, the West Gadsden funeral home had obviously seen death before. They were used to grief, and they were used to the quiet rituals that kind of accompany loss when it occurs. But nothing really could have prepared them for what they found that morning.
10:26
I mean, could you imagine being a funeral home worker, walking outside and finding what you thought was a doll inside the car? Remember Alabama, August, hot, and then discovering that it was actually a child.
10:42
So, the hearse was unlocked and had been, I mean, I'm assuming left unlocked. Inside was this small body lying motionless. and it was so still and so out of place. One staff member later said that she would never forget it.
11:00
She would never forget the image that was burned into her mind. Followed by, I'm sure shock, she called the police. And investigators of course arrived and as they do in every crime scene, they closed off the funeral home and began piecing together how this little girl could end up in the back of a hearse.
11:21
We've had cases and I'm sure y'all have heard of them where children are playing and they'll climb into a hot car and the door will close behind them and they can't get out, different things like that.
11:33
Of course, trying to figure out how she got in there and what exactly happened. So, at 11.45 that morning, Gadsden police confirmed that the body of Blessence Pearl had been found. Detectives, of course, and we've all talked about cameras multiple times, but they're going to look for surveillance cameras in the area to find a lead.
11:59
Because there's bound to be a camera somewhere around this funeral home, if not on the funeral home, that can pick up what happened. Footage actually showed Terica Pearl, who was Blessence's mother, walking in the early hours of the morning, around 2.30 in the morning.
12:16
Like, who goes walking at 2.30 in the morning? She was carrying her daughter. Hours later, the camera picked her up again, and this time she was walking alone. Question is, what happened between those moments?
12:33
Investigators traced Pearl's movements, and they spoke with neighbors, and they started to collect some physical evidence. At Terica's home, police found a robe. The string that once cinched it around the waist had been torn, and so forensic teams compared fibers from that rope to the material found around Blessence's neck, and that actually matched.
13:01
Medical examiner later confirmed when investigators already suspected. Now, by 1.48 a.m. the next day, barely 12 hours later, police arrested Terica Pearl, and she was booked into Etowah County Jail on a charge of capital murder and held without bond.
13:22
Sorry again if I mispronounce words, y'all. I'm from Texas, so every word in Texas has three or four syllables. So, but yeah, I know I've had people tell me before that I misspelled or misspoke, and I apologize in advance if that happens.
13:38
Anyway, days later, after this event, the case moved into the courtroom, and Pearl stood before a judge. prosecutors laid out their evidence. They of course had surveillance footage. They had the footage of her walking with her child and then walking back by the camera without her child.
14:02
They had the ripped robe string, and then they had the child's body, which was covered in evidence. Obviously, again, the fibers from that robe were found around her neck. So, it's hard to defend yourself.
14:17
As investigators testified that the robe's torn string appeared consistent with what was wrapped around the baby's neck, court records noted Pearl's reaction. She was emotional, as you would expect her to be, distraught at times.
14:39
Her defense team kind of pushed back. They wanted records from the Department of Human Services. argued that the files might be illuminous to her state of mind and the case against her, but the judge was pretty firm.
14:56
Under Alabama law, capital murder suspects are not entitled to bond, so Pearl would remain behind bars as the case proceeded. I love this because I always wondered, how is it that someone is accused of murder and then they're released on bond to roam around and walk free for months until the case goes to trial.
15:21
But this wasn't just another murder case. It was the mother accused of killing her own child. And not only that, abandoning her body in one of the most haunting places. I mean, it's one thing to put her in a car, but in the middle of summer, it's just unimaginable.
15:42
The news of the tragedy spread very quick around Gadsden. Neighbors were really kind of stunned. Some said that they had seen Terica with her daughter, and she seemed pretty normal. Nothing really seemed strange.
15:59
But others admitted that there had been some talk about her struggles, and they knew a little, very little, but a little bit about her and a little bit about the issues that she had had. Now at the West Gadsden funeral home, staff members who discovered the body, they were completely shook.
16:19
I mean, as you can imagine. Owner Dantes Robinson later described the saying, recalling how his employees thought the baby was a doll. Community members gathered for a candlelight vigil in memory of Blessance Pearl.
16:37
Speakers prayed and cried and called for justice. And one neighbor actually said, this could have been my family. I mean, you don't know at this point no one really had known what happened, who did, what was going on.
16:51
But the Gadsden mayor, Craig Ford, said that of course the arrest couldn't erase the pain, but it was at least a step towards accountability. Trying to get answers, the grief in the community overwhelming.
17:06
I mean, when there's a death in general, but especially a one-year-old, an innocent one-year-old child, they were very angry. They didn't understand how it could happen and how could a 29-year-old mother take the life of someone whose life she created.
17:26
So, a little bit about Terica Pearl. She was 29 years old at the time of her arrest. On social media, many times she posted about the challenges of parenting. Sometimes kind of hinting that she had some mental health struggles.
17:43
There was a lot going on and she had a heavy weight. of responsibility. We find that sometimes this does happen. People will post on social media. And I know sometimes we all see people that they seem to be asking for help.
17:57
But then again, we're like, nah, that person is fine. They don't need us. I see them all the time. Their life seems perfect. I mean, we never know what's going on behind closed doors. We never know what's going on in someone's mind.
18:14
And many times, we will see TikTok posts, Facebook posts, Instagram posts, and people will make comments like that. And we don't always pay attention, I think. Court filings revealed very little on Terica Pearl.
18:32
We know very little about her background. But her defense teams push for child welfare records suggest that there may be a history with state agencies. Friends describe Terica as quiet and sometimes withdrawn.
18:49
Neighbors said that, again, she seemed like any other young mother. I mean, they all have their struggles. Sometimes they said she seemed stressed. And all young mothers are stressed. So, you wouldn't really think that it was something that they couldn't handle.
19:07
As of now, prosecutors maintain that the evidence is pretty clear that she strangled her daughter with a robe string and then left her body in the hearse. This raises a lot of really hard questions about society and family and mental health and about the systems that are actually designed to protect children.
19:34
If Pearl had been struggling, if the mom was struggling, were there warning signs? Obviously, she had posted something on social media about being stressed. Could there have been an intervention? Is there something that someone could have done or someone could have said that would have prevented this from happening?
19:55
Of course, the details are still unfolding, but the weight of parenthood and the devastating ripple affects the violence within a family. Those things are clear. So, this baby's life was tragically cut short.
20:13
Could you imagine just a year old? But as her case moves towards the courts, the community, everyone's listening, everyone's left with grief and anger and all kinds of questions and are kind of curious, you know, when is she going to go to trial?
20:32
Terica Pearl had a preliminary hearing on Friday, August the 22nd. So that was just four days ago in Gadsden, Alabama regarding this capital murder charge. As of today, the next court date has not been publicly announced.
20:51
Again, she is charged with capital murder. She was arrested on August the 10th, so the day asked her, the body was found. Prosecutors did present evidence, including this surveillance video. And with the preliminary hearing concluded, the case is now going to proceed through the court system.
21:15
Again, we don't know a specific date for her next appearance. But I will try to keep up with that and keep y'all informed. Because this story, I don't know. It's so gruesome to think that this mom would do this to her child, put her in a hearse.
21:34
Not only that, but I mean, no worries whatsoever about what she is doing to the people who are actually going to find her. Like, no concerns at all for the people who are left with that vivid image in their mind.
21:51
And yeah, they do work at a funeral home. But still, it's not something that you would expect to see. She was found that morning. It sounds like that maybe it occurred just the night before. So, she hadn't been there a really long time.
22:05
Thank goodness, because I would hate to think that, like, it was a weekend, the funeral home wasn't busy. And she was in that hearse for days or even longer. It's always hard, the death of kids, especially if it's not accidental.
22:21
And we find, you know, cases like this where someone does it on purpose. It's just horrifying. These are cases as death investigators that we absolutely can't stand. They do happen. And when we get the call at the office, we're like, please, please, please, no, don't be a baby.
22:40
Don't be a child. Because those are just, they're the hardest. I think one of my hard days at the medical examiner's office was, I think I told y'all before but I'm gonna say it again, I had three babies in the ER at one time.
22:57
One was a SIDS and two were siblings that were in a car accident. That was probably the hardest shift for me ever. It's difficult because of their age and they had so much to live for and potentially a great life but that it was just snuffed away, and they were all, no one was SIDS again.
23:22
That was completely natural and something that we can't prevent. It happens unfortunately frequently but the car accident was children not buckled into the car seat. It makes me angry when parents do not take on the responsibility of having,
23:44
or taking care of a child. So, I'm sure y'all feel the same way it is really aggravating and I'm glad that this woman was arrested quickly and I'm glad that she can't get out on bond. I'm glad she's stuck in jail and she's going to have to await her trial, I don't see any possibility of her getting out of jail. We say that Blessance was a year old, she was 21 months old, so she was three months away from being two. And so, poor little girl. I hate these stories, but again I want to come around because these are things that are going on in the world. I didn't know if y'all had ever heard of them again this funeral home is accustomed to seeing bodies all the time, but this was definitely something that they had never seen before and hope they never see again.
24:37
What did you remind y'all that October 11th is the first annual Pushing Up Lilies' murder mystery dinner at Prairie House in Crossroads. They did have a fire out there a couple of weeks ago it was in the kitchen, I think everything is back to normal now, and it will definitely be back to normal by the time we have the event. If you have not bought your tickets, I encourage you to go online and purchase them as soon as possible, they are going quickly. I think there's only a few left. Don't forget to go online at Eventbrite, or I think I have the link on my Facebook page too, which is pushing up Lilies and please send your friends to subscribe. I think I'm going to try to start a TikTok I'm trying to get better at social media, y'all I'm not good at social media. I'm trying to learn, I'm old school. We were talking the other day at work about how we didn't have babies and I could video all the cool things that my daughter's getting videos and my granddaughter, I would be in heaven! All my stuff is literally on VHS,
25:47
which is terrible because you can't even get a VCR now to watch them. But I encourage you to go get the tickets as soon as possible, and also don't forget to shop the Murder Merch store. I'll be adding some new items since I started the booth up at McCart Street Mercantile here at Krum.
26:09
I have some things in the storefront that you can purchase that I'll also be adding to the website. So anyway, I hope y'all are having a great week and I will talk to y'all soon. Take care. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
26:30
If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple Podcast. This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public. Thanks again for spending your time with me.
26:44
And be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.