Florida agency reports kids are 'fine' day after mother is arrested for their killings

A mother under the watch of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) is in custody for killing her young daughter and son, but that didn’t stop the agency from reporting Odette Joassaint’s children were doing "fine" the day after the murders.

Joassaint is facing two murder charges. She's accused of tying up and strangling her son, three, and daughter, six, on April 12, the Miami Herald reported.

When cops arrived and asked why she strangled her children with red ribbon, Joassaint said "I don’t want them anymore."

"Come get them," she told arriving medics and cops about the dead kids, according to the Herald. "I don’t want them."

A worker for the department, which reviews the treatment of children in potentially troubled homes, logged into a computer system and wrote the mother reported "everything is fine" the day after authorities discovered the children’s bodies.

The retroactive log was from a visit by the agency on April 2, which occurred at the home of the two young children’s father, Frantzy Belval, according to the Miami Herald.

The 3-year-old son, Jeffry, "likes to play, laugh, and grab things" while his older sister, Laura, "Is a quiet kid [who] is well-behaved" the department wrote.

Joassaint would reportedly regularly ignore investigators and refuse to open her door, which the department accepted before proceeding to report the children weren’t in danger. In contrast, Belval cooperated and wanted custody of his children, which the DCF did not support.

The oldest daughter was not harmed.

DCF began investigating the family in 2017, following a "domestic disturbance" between the mother and father which left a "large bite mark" on Belval's right arm, according to another Miami Herald report. Joassaint was charged with domestic battery.

A year later, Belval was arrested after he was accused of punching Joassaint in the head while she was pregnant with Jeffry.

DCF workers could have forced Joassaint to undergo a psychological evaluation by petitioning a judge, or sought a judge’s order to compel the mom to open her door when the agency visited, the Herald reported. They did neither.

"They told me they were going to evaluate Odette. They never did that," Belval told the Herald. "DCF is responsible for all of it. DCF is responsible."

In a statement defending their actions, the department told the Miami Herald DCF staff have the responsibility of protecting Florida’s children while only removing children from a home if a parent is unfit to care for their children or is likely to harm their children.

"In this case, DCF investigators were very involved with the family and recommended many services, but there was no history of physical child abuse to the two young children that would have led to their removal."

Staff also recommended many services the family refused which may have resulted in a different outcome, DFC wrote.