Kristel A. Candelario (Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office) and Jailyn Candelario (WKYC screenshot)
A 31-year-old mother in Ohio was arrested for killing her 16-month-old daughter after she allegedly admitted to leaving the toddler home alone while she went on vacation for more than a week.
Kristel A. Candelario was taken into custody 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, officers with the Cleveland Police Department and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel responded to a call at about 8 a.m. on June 16 regarding a dead baby — later identified as Jailyn — in a residence in the 3100 block of West 97th Street. The caller said she was the mother of the child and she came home and found the toddler unresponsive.
Upon arriving at the address, EMS personnel found the child and pronounced her dead. Investigators found “no signs of trauma,” police said in a press 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 was “saturated with urine and feces.”
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Candelario confessed to leaving her toddler alone while she went on vacation for 10 days, authorities said. The incident report states that by “Candelario’s very own admission,” she revealed that she left Jailyn “at home, all alone and unattended” from June 8 until June 16 “while she was vacationing in Puerto Rico and Detroit, Michigan.”
The toddler’s remains were sent to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy and further examination. The medical examiner determined “the child had been 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 Candelario dropped Jailyn off at their apartment and asked if they could watch the child for a weekend. However, they said that Candelario then disappeared for several weeks, either refusing to answer her phone or offering excuses about why she was unable to get her baby.
“I was the one calling her saying, ‘Look I need milk. I need money. I don’t have money to buy milk for your baby. What am I supposed to do?’” one of the women said, recounting conversations and messages left for Candelario.
They claimed Candelario eventually picked up Jailyn after about six weeks. The women reportedly told the station they wished Candelario would have left the baby with them instead of just abandoning her all alone.
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