As speakers offered prayers and singers led an emotional crowd at a candlelight vigil Sunday night in Gadsden, two small stuffed animals sat on a table next to a candle.

These were reminders of the life of Blessence Pearl, a one-year-old girl whose body was found in the hearse of a funeral home Saturday morning.

Terica Pearl, 29, the child’s mother, was in custody on a murder charge roughly 12 hours after the child was found dead.

It remains unclear how the child died or why she was placed in the hearse.

About 100 people came to a prayer vigil Sunday night in Gadsden at West Gadsden Funeral Home, the place Blessence was found dead a day earlier.

The child’s grandmother and great-grandmother stood huddled behind a podium.

Carlos Blount, a custodian at the funeral home, said he found

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