A Cleveland woman who left her 16-month-old daughter home alone for 10 days is charged with murder.
Kristel Candelario, 31, told investigators she left her daughter, Jailyn, “at home, all alone and unattended,” while she traveled to Michigan and vacationed in Puerto Rico, the affidavit states.
Candelario told police she returned home from vacation on June 16 and found her daughter unresponsive at their home.
First responders found the little girl dead in a playpen with “soiled blankets and a bottom liner, saturated with urine and feces,” according to the affidavit.
Candelario was arrested on June 18 and charged with murder, online court records state.
Neighbors were shocked by the tragic news. Neighbors who previously took care of Jailyn told WKYC they wished Candelario had asked them to watch her instead of leaving her home alone.
“Jailyn really didn’t deserve what happened to her. She was amazing and really adorable and I miss her a lot,” a 13-year-old neighbor said.
According to WEWS-TV, Candelario was immediately terminated from Citizens Academy Glenville, an elementary school in Cleveland, where she worked since November 2022. The school released a statement to WEWS-TV confirming that Candelario was let go as a substitute teacher.
Candelario is being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on a $1 million bond, according to PEOPLE.
