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A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase was starved to death by religious cult members - including his mother - because he refused to say 'amen' after meals, police said today.
Ria Ramkissoon and three other members of the group have been charged with the first-degree murder of her son Javon Thompson, whose body was found in April.
U.S. police and the family of Ramkissoon say that the group, based in Baltimore and called 1 Mind Ministries, is a cult.
Javon's food was stopped in December 2006 - when he was about 15 months old - partly because he refused to say 'amen' after dinner, investigators were told by two children who had been taken away from the cult by Philadelphia police.
Members viewed Javon as 'a demon', the children said.
No medical care was sought for the toddler when he stopped breathing, and he died in his mother's arms, according to court records of police interviews with the two children and another informant.
The anonymous informant told police that cult member Queen Antoinette then left the boy's body in a room for more than a week, claiming 'God was going to raise Javon from the dead,' court documents show.
Afterwards, Antoinette burned the clothing and mattress and placed his body in a green suitcase, which she would periodically open and spray with disinfectant to mask the stench, police say.
The group members allegedly left Baltimore early last year for Philadelphia, stowing the green suitcase and other luggage in a shed belonging to a man they had befriended.
Officers found the suitcase, containing the remains of a small child, in April after a tip-off. They are now waiting for DNA tests to confirm the boy's identity.
Ramkissoon, 21, was awaiting a bail review today while being held in custody in a psychiatric ward.
The three other people charged over Javon's death - Antoinette, 40, also known as Toni Ellsberry or Toni Sloan; Marcus Cobbs, 21; and Trevia Williams, who turns 21 on Tuesday - are already in custody.
They were arrested in May in New York on warrants charging them with failure to appear in court after a scuffle with police in a child custody dispute.
A fifth alleged cult member, Steven Bynum, has also been charged with first-degree murder but remains at large, police say. He is believed to be in New York.
Ramkissoon's family said she should not be held responsible for her son's death.
'She had no control over that situation at all,' said her stepfather Craig Newton.
Her mother Seeta Khadan-Newton says Ramkissoon was not behind the decision to stop feeding the boy.
'My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson,' Ms Khadan-Newton said.
'Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions.'
According to court documents, Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born.
Ms Khadan-Newton last saw her in April 2006; she later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that 'the cult leaders' were preventing her from contacting her daughter.
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