Mom Serving Life Explains Why She Left Toddler Alone for 10 Days Before Her Death

A Cleveland mother serving life in prison has opened up about why she left her 16-month-old daughter alone for 10 days while she went on vacation. From June 6 to June 16, Kristel Candelario left her toddler, Jailyn, at home while she traveled to Detroit, Michigan, and then Puerto Rico.

When she came back, Candelario found Jailyn unresponsive in a filthy playpen covered in feces and urine. The little girl was “extremely dehydrated,” and police later described the case as one of the most disturbing they had ever seen. Jailyn was pronounced dead by the Cleveland Division of Police.

In February 2024, Candelario pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and child endangerment. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to the Mirror.

Speaking to NBC News from prison, Candelario said she had been struggling with mental health issues before her daughter’s death. She revealed she had been hospitalized twice in early 2023 for depression and suicidal thoughts. “For that reason, I was in the hospital without being able to walk for almost two weeks,” she said. “And in the month of March, my [now] ex-boyfriend and I wanted to take a vacation.”

Candelario said she told her ex she would leave Jailyn in her mother’s care. But when the trip came around, she claims she acted on impulse. “Actually, I left for the trip as a result of an impulse that I had… I simply wanted to get away from a life of stress, depression, and anxiety. I didn’t want to continue living.”

While on vacation, her boyfriend asked about Jailyn. “When he mentioned [her] to me, it was like when someone reminds you of someone who’s not with you at that moment,” she recalled. She briefly considered calling a neighbor to check on her daughter but never did, a decision she now calls a “mistake.”

At the time, Candelario’s parents were away with her older daughter, believing Kristel had stayed home with Jailyn. They had no idea the toddler was alone with just a few bottles of milk.

When she returned and found Jailyn lifeless, Candelario said her “world fell apart.” She insisted her despair wasn’t about prison but about losing her child, whom she described as her “whole world.”

During her sentencing, prosecutors shared heartbreaking details. Forensic pathologist Elizabeth Mooney told the court that Jailyn’s screams were recorded on a neighbor’s doorbell camera. “The pain and suffering she endured lasted not only hours, not days, but possibly even a week,” Mooney said. “This feeling of abandonment… coupled with starvation and extreme thirst, is suffering I don’t think any of us could ever fully fathom.”

Judge Brendan Sheehan condemned Candelario’s actions, calling them “the ultimate act of betrayal.” He told her, “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 feces to survive.”

He concluded, “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. The only difference is that prison will at least feed you.”