Disturbing footage captured the moment an Ohio mom calmly lied to cops about finding her baby girl dead in her crib, after secretly abandoning the infant to go on a tropical vacation.
Kristel Candelario, 32, was confronted by cops after her 16-month-old daughter Jailyn was found starved to death in her own filth after being left stranded for 10 days in June 2023.
The mom, sentenced to life in prison this week, was seen in the police bodycam footage telling officers that her daughter had been ‘throwing up’ all week – while she had actually been frolicking on a Puerto Rican beach.
‘She was with no food,’ she said cooly. ‘She was refusing (food).’
Kristel Candelario, 32, was seen in police bodycam footage lying to officers about finding her daughter dead, and fabricated a story over the infant ‘refusing’ to eat
While her daughter starved to death, Candelario beamed as she posed on a Puerto Rican beach in an image captioned: ‘The time that is enjoyed is the true time lived’
A medical examiner ruled that the infant had died of starvation and severe dehydration, and a prosecutor said the sight will ‘stick with me for many years to come’
At the same time her daughter was starving to death, Candelario shared vacation snaps of her smiling on a white sandy beach, which she shared to social media captioned: ‘The time that is enjoyed is the true time lived.’
A medical examiner ruled that the infant had died of starvation and severe dehydration, and a prosecutor said the sight will ‘stick with me for many years to come.’
Although she later pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and child endangerment, the new bodycam footage shows she initially lied to cops as they questioned her over her daughter’s sudden death.
As she claimed the toddler was ‘refusing food’ before she died, an officer asks her: ‘And how was she Wednesday and Thursday?’
‘She was refusing, maybe because she didn’t eat two days before,’ she responded, before shrugging her shoulders to feign confusion.
‘But that’s why I was scared, because I say, oh my God we have to go to the hospital because she doesn’t eat anything.’
This week, Candelario was sentenced to life in prison without parole for leaving her toddler home alone to die
In another picture taken from her cold-blooded holiday, Candelario donned jean shorts and a ‘Mandalorian’ Star Wars t-shirt as she appeared to visit a Star Wars theme park
Candelario, who didn’t appear upset or emotional over her daughter’s death, said the infant was looking ‘tiny’ and was ‘losing weight’, and continued to fabricate a story about being home the whole time.
‘This morning when I wake up she was asleep,’ she said. ‘She sleeps everyday, 12 hours.’
‘She sleeps from 9pm to 9 or 10am, 12 hours, so this morning I was sleeping too, she never wake up.’
An officer interrupted her to ask what had happened the night before, to which the murderess said: ‘Last night she was crying a lot.
‘And I see one moment, when I was taking a shower, she was screaming like ‘Aaah’, I don’t know, probably she get in pain, maybe.’
‘I pick her up this morning and she look really, like dry,’ she continued, before she said a few phrases in Spanish.
At the same time as her tropical vacation, her 16-month-old baby Jailyn lay dead in a pile of her own filth
At her sentencing this week, a judge condemned her actions in the strongest terms as the mom was sent behind bars for life without the possibility of parole.
County Common Pleas Court Judge Brendan Sheehan told Candelario she committed ‘the ultimate betrayal’ by leaving her daughter alone without food.
‘Just as you didn’t let Jailyn out of her confinement, so too you should spend the rest of your life in a cell without freedom,’ Judge Sheehan said.
‘The only difference will be, the prison will at least feed you and give you liquid that you denied her.’
Candelario, who has struggled with depression and related mental health issues, said she has prayed daily for forgiveness.
‘There’s so much pain that I have in regards to the loss of my baby, Jailyn,’ she said. ‘I’m extremely hurt about everything that happened.
‘I am not trying to justify my actions, but nobody knew how much I was suffering and what I was going through … God and my daughter have forgiven me.’
Strangely, she made the trips with her older daughter, and it is unclear why Candelario did not ask anyone to help her care for her child while she was traveling.
She had pleaded guilty last month to aggravated murder and child endangerment. At her sentencing this week, a judge said: ‘Just as you didn’t let Jailyn out of her confinement, so too you should spend the rest of your life in a cell without freedom’
The Ohio mom returned from her 10-day jaunt to her home in Cleveland, Ohio (pictured) to find Jailyn was not breathing
After 10 days of sunning herself on the beach and enjoying the local attractions, she returned to her home on June 16 to find her daughter not breathing.
Paramedics and Cleveland police tragically pronounced the one-year-old dead at the scene, and prosecutors said the child was discovered ‘on a liner soiled with urine and feces with soiled blankets.’
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, announcing the plea in February, said: ‘This case is one of those truly unimaginable cases that will stick with me for many years to come.
‘As prosecutors, it is our job to represent the victims and today we spoke on behalf of 16-month-old Jailyn – who is no longer with us – due to the selfish decisions her mother made.’
After the news of the horrific death made headlines, a neighbor also revealed that this was not the first time Candelario had left her baby daughter home alone.
An acquaintance told News5 Cleveland: ‘We keep telling her not to leave her by herself, not just me, my friend across the street too, but she always leave her by herself.’
Another female neighbor, who was not identified, told CNN that Jailyn was ‘always a happy baby’ and was ‘always smiling.’
The neighbor’s daughter said there were ‘plenty of people’ around who could have watched the baby, saying: ‘She could have knocked on any of our doors and asked us to take care of Jailyn and we would have.’
‘When they told us the state they found her in, I was just heartbroken,’ the teenage neighbor told CNN.