A woman is facing murder charges in the US after she was accused of leaving her baby daughter at home alone while going off on holiday for 10 days.
A grand jury in Ohio charged 31-year-old Kristel Candelario with one count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, one count of felonious assault and one count of endangering children.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley announced the grand jury's decision to indict Candelario on the charges in a statement on 26 June.
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He said: "It is unfathomable that a mother would leave her 16-month-old child alone without any supervision for 10 days to go on a vacation.
"As parents, we are supposed to protect and care for our children. Imagining this child’s suffering, during her last days of life alone, is truly horrifying and we will do everything in our power to seek justice on her behalf."
The Ohio-based woman will at a later date face the charges and be confronted with the allegation that she abandoned her 16-month-old daughter Jailyn.
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A preliminary investigation into the baby's death by homicide officers appears to show that Candelario left her child 'alone and unattended' between 6 June and 16 June at her home in Cleveland, Ohio.
The investigators claim that during that time period she was on 'vacation in Detroit, Michigan, and in Puerto Rico'.
When Candelario returned home after 10 days she found her daughter unresponsive and called the police, with the emergency services responding to her call and pronouncing Jailyn dead at the scene.
The 16-month-old was 'extremely dehydrated' at the time of her death and officers found her in a 'soiled' Pack-N-Play pen.
An arraignment date for Candelario to formally hear the crimes she has been charged with has not yet been set.
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According to CNN neighbours of the 31-year-old claimed it wasn't the first time she left her daughter alone.
An unidentified neighbour told them that Jailyn was 'always a happy baby' and when they saw her she was 'always smiling'.
They said that Candelario could have 'asked us to take care of Jailyn', while News 5 Cleveland reported that she lived in her house with her parents and two daughters, and that her parents had taken her older daughter on holiday.
One neighbour told them they 'kept telling her not to leave her by herself', claiming that among the concerned neighbours it was 'not just me, my friend across the street too, but she always leave her by herself'.
Featured Image Credit: Cuyahoga County Police / WKYC