In bizarre baptism, infant found unresponsive in tub by mom who feared COVID, sources say
A Northwest Miami-Dade woman accused of stabbing her husband and teenage child also submerged her infant daughter in a bathtub during a bizarre baptism while screaming about Jesus and worrying that COVID-19 was coming to kill her family, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
Police believe the woman’s husband was stabbed Monday night while trying to intervene in what may have been a violent mental health episode. Her teenage daughter was also stabbed during the incident, police said.
On Wednesday, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office said the child, identified as Emii Bland, died by drowning. The manner of death was homicide.
When police reached the home at 3005 NW 99th St., they found the woman’s husband on the front lawn with stab wounds and the woman inside the home with what they believe were self-inflicted stab wounds. The 15-month-old girl was found unresponsive in the bathtub and taken to Jackson North Medical Center, where doctors pronounced her dead.
Police said the couple’s four other children, all under 11, escaped and ran to a neighbor’s home. None were injured.
As of Tuesday afternoon, police had not officially released the names of the woman, 38, her husband, also 38, or the couple’s teenage daughter. Property records list the owners of the home as Evan and Precious Leslie Bland. A source said the woman goes by Leslie Bland.
All three remained hospitalized.
Nobody answered the door at the family’s home on Tuesday. In the driveway of the ranch-style home, badly in need of a paint job, was a GMC SUV with a baby seat on the ground in front of it, and an older model Jaguar. A large Winnebago rested beside the home along a six-foot wooden fence on Northwest 99th Street. In the backyard were a trampoline, children’s toys and a large, above-ground pool.
The front yard was filled with rubber gloves likely used by paramedics and police after they got to the gory scene. The sidewalk in front of the home was covered in blood. Neighbors didn’t answer door knocks and family members of Evan Bland down the street asked for privacy.
As of Tuesday afternoon, no charges had been filed against Leslie Bland.
“We’re waiting for them to be medically released,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Christopher Sowerby-Thomas, a spokesman.
It was just two months ago when a Lauderhill mother was suspected of drowning her children, after two young sisters were found dead in a canal. A neighbor told the Miami Herald that Tinessa Hogan, the mother of the girls, had asked her if she could baptize her children. Hogan was charged with murder.
* This story was updated Wednesday with the cause and manner of death for baby Emii Bland.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 2:27 AM.
