Kristel A. Candelario (Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office) and Jailyn Candelario (WKYC screenshot)
A 31-year-old mother in Ohio has been arrested for killing her 16-month-old daughter after she allegedly admitted leaving the toddler home alone while she was away on vacation for more than a week.
Kristel A. Candelario was arrested on Saturday and charged with one count of murder in the tragic death of young Jailyn Candelario, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Cleveland Police Department officers and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel responded to a call around 8 a.m. on June 16 about a dead baby – later identified as Jailyn — in a residence on the 3100 block of West 97th Street. The caller said she was the child’s mother and came home to find the toddler unconscious.
Upon arriving at the address, EMS personnel found the child and declared her dead. Investigators found “no signs of trauma,” police said in a news release.
“A preliminary investigation revealed that Jailyn was extremely dehydrated,” police wrote in the report.
In Jailyn’s Pack-N-Play bin, police found “soiled blankets and a bottom liner” which they said were “soaked in urine and feces”.
Candelario has confessed to leaving her toddler alone as she went on vacation for 10 days, authorities said. The incident report states that by “Candelario’s own admission”, she revealed that she left Jailyn “home, alone and unattended” from June 8 to 16 “while she was on vacation. in Puerto Rico and Detroit, Michigan”.
The toddler’s remains were sent to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy and further examination. The medical examiner determined that “the child was left alone and unattended for approximately 10 days and subsequently died,” officials said.
Candelario’s neighbors reportedly told Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC that Candelario was known as an absentee mother. Neighbors told the station in August 2022 that Candelario dropped Jailyn off at their apartment and asked if they could watch the child for a weekend. However, they said Candelario then disappeared for several weeks, refusing to answer her phone or offering an apology as to why she was unable to have her baby.
“I was the one who called her and said, ‘Listen, I need milk. I need money. I don’t have money to buy milk for your baby. What is am I supposed to do?” said one of the women, recounting the conversations and messages left with Candelario.
They claimed Candelario finally got Jailyn back after about six weeks. The women reportedly told the station that they wished Candelario had left the baby to them instead of abandoning him on her own.
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