Primate News

GADSDEN, ALABAMA - State prosecutors are pointing to surveillance video and pieces of a robe allegedly used to strangle a Gadsden 1-year-old child as key pieces of evidence in the capital murder trial of the child’s mother.

Terica Pearl was arrested and charged after her daughter, 1-year-old Blessance Pearl, was found dead inside of a hearse by workers at a funeral home.

Gadsden investigators, during a preliminary hearing for Terica Pearl Friday, say they’ve recovered surveillance video that shows the woman walking in the early morning hours of the day Blessance was found. Those investigators say Pearl lives just one block from the funeral home where her daughter’s body was found.

That surveillance video reportedly shows Pearl walking around 2:30 a.m. with a baby in her arms. The baby can be seen holding its head up and moving. Pearl is said to be walking southbound in the direction of the funeral home.

Roughly two and a half hours later, investigators say Pearl is seen again on the surveillance video, this time without a child.

When Blessance’s body was found inside of the hearse at West Gadsden Funeral Home, investigators say white residue was on the feet, arms, hair and back, and that a piece of a rope investigators say is part of a bath robe was found wrapped around the child’s neck. Investigators say that piece of material was part of the same blue bath robe Terica was seen wearing in the surveillance video.

It was while the lead investigator was describing the condition of the child’s body that Pearl became visibly emotional in the courtroom, wiping away tears.

While the official autopsy has not yet been released publicly, the lead investigator said during testimony Friday that he has been told the cause of death for the child was strangulation. The piece of material allegedly used was described by investigators as having the same thickness as a shoelace.

Investigators say Terica Pearl showed up to a Huntsville hotel later that day, and a worker there directed her to a recovery center in Huntsville because she appeared to be under the influence of drugs. It was at the recovery center where Pearl was arrested and interviewed.

According to investigator Nick Keener, Pearl had a white residue in her hair. Pearl told them that Blessance had gotten into whiteout the previous day, something another person who lived at Pearl’s home had also told detectives.

When asked why she had taken a walk to the funeral home and driven to Huntsville, investigators say Pearl told them she was “compelled” to.

Investigators asked Pearl whether she talked to her baby during her walk to the funeral home, and she reportedly told them she asked Blessance if she felt safe.

Detectives said Pearl eventually became hysterical during the interview, and while talking about her walk to the funeral home she began screaming “oh my god, what have I done?”

The robe investigators say Pearl had been seen wearing was found in a bag inside the car she drove to Huntsville in, and was visibly damaged.

“You can see where the string was ripped from the garment,” Keener said.

Pearl’s legal team is arguing that there’s not enough evidence to prove their client is guilty, and are also calling for DHR records of both Blessance and Terica to be made available.

“Those records would be illuminous to how we all got here today,” Attorney Shaun Malone said near the end of the hearing.

Pearl remains in jail on no bond.

https://www.wbrc.com/2025/08/23/you-can ... dy-hearse/