‘How could someone do this?’ Family mourns kids who were killed at Miami home
Deacon Jose Aleman entered the chapel alone after looking through a window and spotting two caskets, one smaller than the other.
He made the sign of the cross and silently prayed before Laura Belval, 5, and her little brother Jeffry, 3.
He didn’t know them, nor did he know their father, who had stood there about an hour before holding up a cellphone so a cousin in Haiti could see the kids one last time through a video call. Her cracking voice filled the empty chapel Friday afternoon.
“How could someone do this?” Aleman later wondered aloud, a question that hung over Emmanuel Funeral Home in North Miami Beach, where family held a daylong viewing for the children. He was there for another service but felt compelled to pray over two children who were killed April 12. Police say they were strangled by their mother, who remains jailed and charged with second-degree murder.
“They’re with God now,” Aleman said. “I was asking God to watch over them, and for peace for their father … and for their mother.”
Rain poured outside as the Belvals’ friends and family came to pay respects and comfort the children’s father, Frantzy Belval. A funeral mass and burial will be held Saturday.
“This is so hard,” Belval said, looking down.
Sadness flowed into anger at times. One woman could be heard talking about the children’s mother, Odette Joassaint.
“She should see them now,” she said. “She should see what she’s done.”
Laura Belval lay in a pink dress with a white bow and butterfly jewelry adorning her hair. A picture of Jeffry Belval on his red tricycle lay next to him in his small white casket. His father said the boy didn’t like it when his sister rode it, even though his big sister was more generous with him.
“He didn’t like to share,” said Belval, in the lobby of the funeral home. He didn’t sit long in the chapel. “Laura always shared with him.”
Violette Jacques, who was going to be Jeffry’s godmother, expressed disbelief. It was hard to fathom the loss of two young children.
“I’m praying for him,” she said, gesturing toward Belval.
Flowers formed hearts, one pink, one blue, next to each coffin. A screen mounted over the caskets displayed videos and pictures of the kids, almost always together, laughing, playing at home. Selfies with dad. Happy Meals on the weekends.
Behind the images, a song by Beyoncé softly played.
“Heaven couldn’t wait for you … “
This story was originally published June 3, 2022 at 7:35 PM.
