A popular influencer admitted that she regrets not installing a fence around her family’s pool because it ‘could have saved’ her toddler from drowning while being babysat by her husband.
Mommy blogger Emilie Kiser broke her silence Thursday in a lengthy social media post detailing the unimaginable pain she and her family have experienced since her son Trigg, 3, drowned in their backyard pool in Chandler, Arizona back in May.
Earlier this month, distressing details emerged in a police report surrounding Trigg’s death, stating that his father and Kiser’s husband, Brady, admitted he placed a $25 bet on an NBA game he was watching at the time of the fatal drowning.
In her Thursday statement, which did not mention Brady by name, Kiser, 26, said: ‘I take full accountability as Trigg’s mother, and I know I should have done more to protect him.
‘One of the hardest lessons I carry is that a permanent pool fence could have saved his life, and it’s something I will never overlook again.’
Kiser was not home at the time of the tragic accident.
Brady, 28, was looking after both Trigg and the couple’s newborn son, Theodore, at the time while she was out with friends.
According to a report from Chandler Police Department, Brady told officers he had lost sight of the youngster for three to five minutes.
Police said video evidence showed that the boy was left unsupervised for over nine minutes ‘and in the water for about 7 of those minutes.’
Due to the severity of his condition, Trigg was initially rushed to a nearby hospital, then later airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital for specialized care.
In her statement, Kiser, who has not posted online since the beginning of May, called her late son ‘our baby and our best friend.’
‘The light and spirit he brought into this world was bright, pure, joyful and undeniable. We miss him every second of every day and continuing forward often feels unbearable,’ she continued.
The influencer went on to mention that she hopes Trigg’s ‘story will prevent other children and families from suffering the same loss.’
She also thanked her family, friends and supporters for the ‘outpouring of love’ they have received.
‘In the future, I hope to be in a place to show more about how I am navigating this grief, but fight now, all I can say is thank you for the love, compassion, patience and space you’ve given us to grieve. I am more grateful for it than can ever be expressed,’ Kiser added.
There were a number of discrepancies highlighted in the police report regarding Brady’s actions that day.
Trigg’s father originally stated that he was sitting in a chair looking out to the yard, but officers noted that the chairs were visible to security cameras and that he never sat in one.
After being questioned about this, Brady told officers: ‘I was sitting on the couch,’ before describing sitting and facing the TV, with a glass door to his right that looked out on to the yard.
Brady admitted he was watching an NBA playoff game at the time of the drowning and said that he had placed a $25 bet on the outcome.
During initial questioning in the wake of Trigg’s death, Brady told police he had been looking away from Trigg for about five minutes.
In a subsequent interview, he said he’d only taken his eye off the boy for ‘moments, not minutes.’ Brady then gave a separate version of events, saying he’d looked away for between three and five minutes.
When asked about the discrepancies, he said it had been difficult for him to estimate exactly how long he had taken his eye off Trigg.
‘Brady’s statements do not match what is seen on the video; he did not accurately describe one thing [Trigg] did after he went outside,’ the report noted.
‘This leads to the conclusion that Brady was not aware of what [Trigg] was doing and was not watching him.
‘The combination of these factors led to drowning, and a remedy to any of the contributing circumstances could have prevented the outcome.’
Brady is not facing criminal charges in relation to the death of his son, despite police recommending a felony child abuse charge.
The release of the report came after Emilie moved to have all information relating to the case sealed.
The Maricopa County Superior Court sided with her and ruled that two pages of the report would be shielded from the public.
The report’s contents would only ‘satisfy morbid curiosity’ and ‘would risk exploitation by bad actors,’ read the ruling, viewed by the Daily Mail.
The influencer convinced the judge that allowing the harrowing play-by-play would entice social media sleuths to create AI recreations that would go viral online.
The unredacted police report included a moment-by-moment written depiction of officer bodycam footage that captured Trigg’s death – which the court said was so thorough that it ‘functions as a surrogate for the video itself.’
Its contents are of a ‘vivid and granular nature,’ making it so ’emotionally disturbing’ that shielding it from the public is wholly justified, the ruling stated.
Celebrating the small win, Kiser’s attorney, Shannon Clark, told Daily Mail at the time: ‘We’re grateful to [the judge] for carefully balancing the important interests at stake and allowing a narrow but meaningful redaction to the Chandler police report, removing two pages that detail the graphic final moments of Trigg’s life.
‘These redactions do not alter any material facts of the accident, but they protect the dignity of a little boy whose memory should reflect the love and light he brought to the world.
‘From the start, this has been about protecting Trigg and the family’s ability to grieve privately.
‘This decision allows them, and the public, to remember him for the beautiful life he lived, not the tragic way it ended.’