Kristel Candelario, who left her 16-month-old daughter Jailyn behind while she went on holiday, has explained why she carried out such a ‘diabolical act’, which resulted in a tragedy that continues to haunt investigators
18:15, 03 Aug 2025Updated 06:31, 04 Aug 2025
Little Jailyn was left alone to fend for herself for 10 agonising days(Image: WKYC)
A mother who was sentenced to life in prison has opened up about why she left her 16-month-old daughter at home alone while she headed off on holiday from June 6 to June 16. Kristel Candelario, from Cleveland, Ohio, left little Jailyn unattended for 10 days while she took a trip to Detroit, Michigan, and Puerto Rico.
When she returned, Candelario, who acknowledged having “committed a diabolical act”, found the toddler unresponsive and called the police. The “extremely dehydrated” little girl was discovered in a filthy playpen covered with faeces and urine.
Tragically, she was declared dead by the Cleveland Division of Police (CPD), with investigators describing the case as the most harrowing they’d had to deal with in the course of their careers. It comes after a woman, 20, was found dead on bus with 26 iPhones glued to her body.
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Kristel Candelario has since told her side of the story(Image: AP)
In February 2024, Candelario pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated murder and one count of child endangerment and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Candelario has since told her side of the story, explaining that she had been suffering mental health problems in the run-up to her daughter’s death.
Speaking with NBC News from her prison in Cleveland, Candelario shared how she’d been hospitalised in January and February 2023 on account of her mental health issues. On one of these occasions, she’d been experiencing suicidal thoughts.
Candelario told the publication: “For that reason, I was in the hospital without being able to walk for exactly almost two weeks. And in the month of March, I mean, my 1754293155 ex-boyfriend and I wanted to take a vacation.”
Freeing her ex of any blame in the matter, Candelario emphasised that she’d informed him that she’d be leaving Jailyn in the care of her mother. Explaining that the decision to travel arose from her mental state at that time, Candelario said: “Actually, I left for the trip as a result of an impulse that I had, that I took, grabbed my four things, and ran out of the house like when someone is being chased.
“It’s not that at that moment I thought that, ‘Ah, I was going to Puerto Rico … I was going to be super comfortable.’ No, I never thought that. I simply wanted to get away from a life of stress, depression, and anxiety. I didn’t want to continue living, because I had had a lot of problems in my life.”
Candelario was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.(Image: WKYC)
Others on the trip reportedly noticed that Candelario wasn’t acting like herself, and she also recalled how, on one of the days, her then-boyfriend asked her about Jailyn. She responded that the little girl was fine, remembering: “When he mentioned [the girl] to me, it was like when someone reminds you of someone who’s not with you at that moment.”
For a few moments, Candelario considered contacting a neighbour to check on Jailyn, but never did so, a decision she now regards as a “mistake.”
At this time, Candelario’s parents were away on a separate trip with her other child, a then-seven-year-old girl. They believed Candelario had stayed at home to care for Jailyn and had no idea that their baby granddaughter had been left alone in her playpen, with a few bottles of milk.
Opening up about the moment she returned and found Jailyn unresponsive, Candelario, who has described her daughters as her “whole world“, shared: “That’s when my world fell apart. Not because maybe I was thinking about going to prison. That’s the least important thing, because one is an adult and one can accept one’s mistakes. [I was in] despair. I felt she could be saved; things didn’t have to happen that way because my daughter was doing well, I always took care of her.”
The toddler was found in a soiled playpen, having suffered extreme dehydration (Image: WKYC)
During Candelario’s sentencing, as per CNN, the court heard how Jailyn’s screams were captured on a neighbour’s doorbell camera. Addressing the Cleveland courtroom, forensic pathologist Elizabeth Mooney emphasised the agony the child must have endured in her final days.
Showing emotion, Ms Mooney told the court: “The pain and suffering she endured lasted not only hours, not days, but possibly even a week. This feeling of abandonment for days on end, coupled with the pain of starvation and extreme thirst, is a type of suffering I don’t think any of us could ever fully fathom.”
While handing down sentencing, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Brendan Sheehan told Candelario: “The bond between a mother and a child is one of the most purest and most sacred bonds. It’s a relationship built on love, trust, and unwavering protection. … You committed the ultimate act of betrayal.
“That little baby persevered, waiting for someone to save her. And you could have done that with a simple phone call. Instead, I see photos of you on a beach while your child was eating her own faeces in an attempt to survive.”
He continued: “Just as you didn’t let Jailyn out of her confinement until she died, so too you should spend the rest of your life in a cell without freedom,” Sheehan said. “The only difference is that prison will at least feed you.”
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