An Ohio woman is charged with the murder of her 16-month-old daughter after she left the toddler home alone for 10 days to go on vacation and found the child had died upon her return. Kristel Candelario, 31, was arrested and charged in the death of her baby daughter, Jailyn on June 18, while she reportedly traveled to Detroit and Puerto Rico, as per the affidavit, NBC News reported.
When Kristel returned to her Cleveland home located at West 97th Street on June 16th she saw that her daughter had been unresponsive. Speaking through an interpreter, Candelario admitted to investigators that she had left her baby ‘at home, all alone and unattended,’ and found that her daughter had reportedly been ‘extremely dehydrated,’ as per the affidavit.
Authorities alleged that her daughter’s playpen had been filled with ‘soiled blankets and a bottom liner, saturated with urine and feces,’ according to an affidavit. When emergency personnel arrived on the scene, they pronounced the child deceased. It is unclear why Candelario did not ask anyone to help her care for her child while she was traveling.
Officials said on Thursday that Candelario never made any arrangements for her baby daughter before she went away. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said that there were ‘no signs of trauma’ but revealed that the child had been left alone for approximately 10 days and had subsequently died, per a police statement.
Neighbors were distraught upon hearing the news. Many said they had previously taken care of the toddler and wished Candelario had asked them for help, People reported. A 13-year-old who knew the child said that she was ‘amazing and really adorable.’ ‘Jailyn really didn’t deserve what happened to her,’ they said. ‘I miss her a lot.’ Another resident remembered the child as ‘always happy.’
‘Jailyn, she was a happy baby, always smiling, always curious about stuff. She was a wonderful, wonderful baby,’ they said. An acquaintance told News5 Cleveland this was not the first time Candelario had left her baby daughter home alone. ‘We keep telling her not to leave her by herself, not just me, my friend across the street too, but she always leave her by herself,’ the person said.
Candelario had previously worked as a building substitute at Citizen Academy Glenville, an elementary school in Cleveland. She had been in that role since November 2022, but was fired after her arrest. The school issued a statement announcing her termination, WEWS-TV reported.
According to officials with Children and Family Services, there is no record of any previous cases involving Candelario, as per the news outlet. She is currently being held at the Cuyahoga County jail on $1 million bond. It is not immediately known if she has retained an attorney or if she has entered a plea. Her next scheduled hearing is June 28 at 8:30am.