Cherish Perrywinkle - an 8 year old girl murdered in Florida

Cherish Perrywinkle

Cherish Perrywinkle, age 8, died on June 21, 2013, in Jacksonville, Florida.

She was murdered by a registered sex offender.

Cherish and her mother and two other siblings were shopping at a dollar store in the evening. Donald James Smith, of Jacksonville, age 56, befriended the girl and her mother and offered to buy them clothes and hamburgers. He later walked out of the store with the girl. The girl's mother called 911 when she noticed they were missing.

Cherish's body was found the next day in the woods near a

Donald Smith

local church. Police arrested Donald Smith after stopping his van on Interstate 95. Authorities have not said how Cherish died.

Donald Smith has been a registered sex offender since a 1993 conviction for attempted kidnapping and selling obscene materials. He has been arrested several times since then, most recently in 2009 on a charge of child abuse after making obscene phone calls to a 10-year-old girl, making verbal threats, and impersonating a social worker with the Florida Department of Children and Families who claimed to be investigating the girl's family.

Cherish is described as a pleasant child who got along well with everyone. She was grateful and appreciative. She was just a sweet kid.

Saint Jude, pray
for Cherish

Cherish is survived by many loving friends and relatives including her mother, Rayne Perrywinkle and two siblings. 

She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.

God save us from the psychopaths and the freaks.  They are killing us, Father.  Amen. 

God save the children of this world who suffer.  Amen.

Pray that Cherish is playing in the fields of heaven. Pray that she is at peace and is with God. Amen.