On June 16th, 2023, a neighborhood on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio, became the backdrop for an incomprehensible crime. Kristel Candelario, a 31 year old mother, came back from a ten day vacation to discover a nightmare scenario in her own home. Her 16 month old daughter was found in a dire state of neglect. Her condition so severe that her rendered first responders speechless and brought hardened detectives to tears as the investigation unfolded. It laid bare an even more shocking reality the chain of events that led to such appalling neglect. In this video, we will examine the details of the Candelario case and confront the harrowing question that haunts everyone touched by this case. How and why could such a vulnerable child fall victim to what a judge has described as the ultimate betrayal? Let's dive in. Detective, if you don't mind, just please say and spell your first and last name. Yes, Detective T.J. Powell. P-O-W-E-L-L. Assigned to the Cleveland Police Homicide Unit. I was the lead detective investigator on this case. And I can honestly say, Your Honor, and my 17 year career as a Cleveland police officer, this by far is the most horrific case I've ever had to investigate being a detective for ten years. Kristel Candelario, born on September 11th, 1991, is a 32 year old single mother who relocated to the United States from Ecuador in 2016. She resides with her parents and two daughters in a three bedroom, one bath home in the Cuddell neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Since December 2022, Kristel has worked as a substitute teacher at Citizens Leadership Academy, a local elementary charter school. She holds a bachelor's degree from overseas. The State Board of Education records show that except for 2023, Kristel has consistently applied for her annual substitute teaching license, starting from 2020 in 2021. Kristel connected on Facebook with Henry Garcia, a who lived in Ecuador. They began an online relationship and later traveled to the Dominican Republic to spend more time together. According to Garcia, Kristel returned to Ohio and from there notified him of her pregnancy as per court records. Kristel claimed the couple were in a long distance relationship, and Garcia had become physically abusive during the pregnancy. Nevertheless, Kristel gave birth to daughter Jailyn in early 2022. It was clear through social media that Kristel was fond of traveling. She shared images of herself in various locations on Facebook. Yet, besides the occasional travel images, her Facebook posts mainly consisted of selfies in different poses and outfits interspersed with a few photos of her children. While Kristel had no record of felony offenses. She had a reputation in the neighborhood that raised a few eyebrows. Community members claim it was not uncommon for Kristel to leave her one year old Jailyn in the house alone. In August 2022, prior to the arrival of Kristel's parents, a neighbor agreed to watch Jailyn for a weekend. However, the arrangement unexpectedly turned into weeks with Kristel unresponsive or evasive when contacted. According to a published report. One neighbor said "I was the one calling her, saying, Look, I don't have money to buy milk for your baby. What am I supposed to do?" She said it got to the point where Jailyn was calling her mama. [REPORTER] - And neighbors told me this is not the first time Candelario has left the baby home alone. [Neighbor 1] - We keep telling her not to leave her by herself, not only me and my friend across the street too. But she always leave her by herself. They got to know and love little Jailyn. They say they took Jailyn in many times when Candelario went to work, even describing her as one of their own. According to these neighbors, Candelario left Jailyn often. [Neighbor 2] - It wasn't really her mom that was taking care of her. It was her grandma that was mostly taking care of her. Her mom always wanted to go out and and just left her with her grandma and all that. [NARRATOR] - Neighbors added that Jailyn was otherwise well cared for and showed no apparent signs of physical injury. Based on a report by News 5 Cleveland, officials with Children and Family Services claim there is no record of previous cases involving Candelario. As the 2023 school year ended, Kristel, eager for her favorite summer activity, planned a vacation. With her eldest daughter away with her parents, she scheduled a trip to Puerto Rico to rendezvous with her boyfriend from June 8th to June 11th. Surveillance from a doorbell camera showed her leaving her home on June 6th, carrying a suitcase as she had arranged a short stay in Detroit before heading to Puerto Rico. By all accounts, Kristel was living her best life while on vacation, enjoying the sun, clear blue Caribbean waters, nightlife and the company of friends. On June 9th, she made a social media post from the Isla Verde beach in Puerto Rico with the caption "Time enjoyed is the true time lived." Yet this joy sharply contrasted with a terrifying event that was about to unfold. Kristel arrived in the mainland U.S. on June 11th, but did not go straight home. Instead, she spent several days in Detroit with friends. Upon returning home on June 16th at about 7:36 a.m., Kristel found her one year old daughter alone in her playpen, unresponsive and with sunken eyes. She called the police 11 minutes later. [DISPATCH] - Cleveland police dispatch and public response unit, do you need police, fire or EMS? My baby’s dying! Oh my god! [DISPATCH] - Cleveland police, do you need police, fire or EMS? My baby’s dying! She’s dying! [DISPATCH] - What’s that? Please!! [DISPATCH] - I need your address. 31-29 West 97 [DISPATCH] - One-seven-nine ... oh, 8129 West 97? My baby is dying! My baby ... Please! I need help! [DISPATCH] - Okay, I still have to find out where you’re at so tell me the address so we can help you. 31-29, West 97 [DISPATCH] - Okay, is it a single home or an apartment? Please ... [DISPATCH] - What’s your name? Kristel ... Kristel. [DISPATCH] - What’s your last name, Kristel? Kristel Candelario, please help me Please help me ... C’MON, C’MON, C’MON!! Stop it! [DISPATCH] - What? C’mon send me some help! [DISPATCH] - What’s the best number to reach you if we get disconnected? Please! DISPATCHER READS BACK PHONE NUMBER [REDACTED] My daughter’s ... white ... [DISPATCH] - Tell me what’s going on ... [UNINTELLIGIBLE] [DISPATCH] - What’s going on? I don’t know what happened! She’s not breathe ... I don’t know! [DISPATCH] - Okay ma’am, I’m gonna give you a little bit of time to calm down. Please, I need help! [DISPATCH] - I need you to tell me what happened ... I need help! [DISPATCH] - Okay, I’m gonna give you a few moments to calm down. Send me help, please my girl is dying [DISPATCH] - Kristel ... [DISPATCH] - Kristel ... uh-huh? [DISPATCH] - Keep talking to me so I can help you. She not respond ... She’s ... She’s white!! She’s white!! [DISPATCH] - Who’s white? The baby (unintelligible) I can’t speak English ... [DISPATCH] - I understand you. Tell me who’s white? Who is white? My baby ... [DISPATCH] - Your mom? Is it your mom? I’m her mom, yes ... I’m her mom! My daughter is dying ... [DISPATCH] - I’m gonna get you over to EMS, hang on a minute while I transfer you, okay? Oh my baby is dying ... Police and ambulance personnel quickly arrived at the scene, but nothing could prepare them for the horrific nature of what they were about to witness. Jailyn was discovered in a small playpen on a liner stained with urine, feces and soiled blankets. Emergency responders found her to be extremely dehydrated and pronounced her dead shortly after they arrived. Jolene's grim condition left officers bewildered, questioning how such a tragedy could occur to an innocent one year old. They began their search for answers by questioning Kristel. I remember right now, when you mention the vomiting. She get a vomiting ... the last week ... Monday. And Tuesday. Two times. But I was trying controlling, because I know I give to her Tylenol, or something, you know, for ... [OFFICER] - Yes. For controlling the vomiting. [OFFICER] - Okay. [OFFICER] - This is my supervisor. Sgt. Gomez. She was refusing to eat food and she was with no appetite. I say, “Oh my god.” [OFFICER] - This is after last Monday and Tuesday, when she was throwing up? Yeah. [OFFICER] - Okay. [OFFICER] - Are you talking about Monday and Tuesday, like, four days ago? Yeah, yeah, the last week. [OFFICER] - Okay. Because we almost done this week, so ... I talk about, yeah. [OFFICER] - Because ... what this week? This week, yeah, I talk about, because we almost done, you know. [OFFICER] - Oh, we’re almost done with this week. Okay. [OFFICER] - Alright. So that was just Monday and Tuesday of this week ... she was throwing up Yes. [OFFICER] - And then, how was she Wednesday and Thursday? She was with no, uh ... with no food ... Just with the milk because she was refusing. Maybe it’s because she get a vomiting two days before. [OFFICER] - Yeah. So, that’s why ... I was scared because I said “oh my god,” let me go to the hospital because she doesnt eat anything. She was lose, tiny ... you know, she lose her weight. But right now this morning when I wake up she was asleep. She sleep every day 12 hours. [OFFICER] - Okay. She sleep, like, 9 PM to 9 or 10 AM. Twelve hours. So, in this morning I was sleeping too. I never wake up. She was ... [OFFICER] - What happened, what ... what was going on last night? Last night she was crying a lot, and I see one moment when I was, take a shower, me ... and she was screaming, like “aaah!” I don’t know, probably she get a pain [OFFICER] - Okay. [OFFICER] - About what time was that last night? Uh, maybe at 7 or 8 PM. [OFFICER] - Okay. So, she was screaming, like, you know probably for pain or something like that Um, in this morning when I wake up, you know, I took her in the morning for “Jailyn, wake up!” And she wake uh ... and when I see her I see she looks really, really dry. Like, uh ... [IN SPANISH] - How do you say when a person appears, like, sucked in ... [OFFICER] - Oh, like her face was sunken in? [IN SPANISH] Yeah ... and I got scared. Kristel's explanation of the events puzzled the officers, who at this point were unaware that she had been out of town since June 6th. They were primarily concerned by her calm manner, just hours after finding her daughter dead along with her descriptions of clear signs of physical distress in her daughter that necessitated medical intervention help that was never sought. Consequently, they decided to take Kristel to the police station for a formal and thorough interrogation. [DET. POWELL] - What time did you go to Detroit, Michigan on Monday? In the morning. [DET. POWELL] - Okay. On Monday morning, what condition was Jailyn in? She was okay. [DET. POWELL] - Was she awake, asleep? No, she was sleeping. [DET. POWELL] - She was asleep when you left? [DET. POWELL] - So you went there on Monday at what time? Maybe 7 or 8 AM. [DET. POWELL] - In the morning? [DET. POWELL] - Okay. Seven or 8 AM. [DET. POWELL] - So when you left the house Jailyn was asleep in her playpen? Yeah. [DET. POWELL] - Okay. So, you go to Michigan ... what time did you arrive in Michigan? [TRANSLATED] - Two hours and 30 minutes. [DET. POWELL] - So you get there, you arrive there, who do you meet up with? [TRANSLATED] - She stayed at a hotel and she right away started working Uber. [DET. GOMEZ] - Okay, c’mon. [DET. GOMEZ] - You go to Michigan and you don’t know what city, what hotel? You gotta come up with something better than that. [DET. GOMEZ] - No, where you were staying, not David. [DET. GOMEZ] - Where YOU were staying. We’re not talking about David. Super 8. [DET. POWELL] - Super 8? Yeah. [DET. POWELL] - Gotcha. So you arrive there two hours later. You stayed at Super 8. [DET. POWELL] - You mentioned something about Uber? [TRANSLATED] - She was working Uber. [DET. GOMEZ] - Why would you go, hold on ... why would you go work Uber in Detroit, Michigan, instead of Uber here in Cleveland ... [DET. GOMEZ] - where your daughter is? I would also work Uber here in Cleveland. [DET. GOMEZ] - Okay, but why go over there and not do it here? [DET. GOMEZ] - Why not do it here? Your daughter’s here. [TRANSLATED] - Because she was gonna meet some friends over there in Michigan so she took advantage of [TRANSLATED] - the fact that she was over there to visit people and she worked too. [TRANSLATED] - But not always. She didn’t do that always. [DET. POWELL] - Okay. [DET. POWELL] - Don’t take this the wrong way. [DET. POWELL] - At what point did you think that it would make sense to leave her here while you went to Michigan? [DET. GOMEZ TRANSLATES THE QUESTION] For travelling. [DET. POWELL] - Why not travel with her? [DET. GOMEZ] - She said that, because she had planned on returning on Friday and spending time with her then, so ... [DET. GOMEZ] - She didn’t want to stay in anybody’s house. [DET. GOMEZ] - But why not take (Jailyn) with you if you already knew that she had a condition going on at the time? [DET. GOMEZ TRANSLATES THE QUESTION] [DET. GOMEZ] - Because she wanted to have a good time and travel. After taking the time to investigate Kristel's inconsistent claims, detectives obtained overwhelming evidence, including ring camera footage of June 9th, which captured what they believed to be Jailyn's final cries. Investigators concluded that Kristel had knowingly left her 16 month old daughter home alone in a two by three foot playpen for ten days without food or water while she vacationed in various locations. The autopsy's findings of starvation and severe dehydration as the causes of death corroborated this conclusion, according to the medical examiner Jailyn most likely passed away sometime between June 9th and the 13th. Subsequently, Kristel was arrested on June 18th. A grand jury returned an indictment of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, one count of felonious assault, and one count of endangering a child. Her bond was set at $1 million. The case moved quickly through the court system, leading to an initial trial date in January 2024, which a judge later rescheduled to February 26th. But four days before trial, Kristel was offered and accepted a plea deal. By agreeing to plead guilty to aggravated murder and one count of endangering a child, the other charges against her were dropped. Since accepting a plea deal meant no trial, sentencing was set for March 18th. At this hearing, Sergeant Teresa Gomez shared her reflections on the case. And orders that she can have an activist. Teresa Gomez are easy jail and easy. Morning, Your Honor. Your Honor. Thank you for allowing me to be a voice for Jailyn Candelario, a beautiful angel whose life was cut short for no good reason. This tragedy should have never happened. I am sorry that Gomez from the Homicide unit, the entire homicide unit, Cleveland Homicide Initiative, and our partners from the FBI are here today in honor of Baby J. Lea candelario. When we were first notified of this horrific case, we were all heartbroken. But when we started digging deeper into the investigation, it was beyond horrific. It was revealed that the defendant, Kristel Candelario, left her own child alone for hours, which led today days which led to weeks. The 16 month old baby was left alone in a Pack-N-Play to fend for herself for 11 days with no food, maybe milk, the clothing she had on and the diapers she was wearing. This baby lost her mother. She needed her mother and her mother betrayed her. Mothers usually want their children to have a long, happy life. But Candelario placed more importance on a vacation in Puerto Rico with her boyfriend than the health, safety and well-being of fer own daughter. She chose to satisfy her own needs and desires over that of her own child. Kristel's court-appointed attorney was in the unenviable position of trying to defend the indefensible. Okay. We're going to turn now to the defense. Mr. Smith, [ATTY. SMITH] - Thank you, Your Honor. May it please the Court. Everything that I'm about to get into here today and my client agrees with me is no justification for her actions and what the prosecution said. Actions matter and these actions are narcissistic, selfish, abhorrent, absolutely. Worst parenting imaginable. She pled to aggravated murder. She pled to child endangering. So everything we're about to tell you is just mitigation. Just to kind of give you an understanding of who this person is. So she came over from Ecuador in 2016 with her grandmother. She was here for a few years. Her parents came over and they lived together and she had her first daughter, Amaya, while she was married, subsequently got divorced, was a single mom, met the father of Jailyn in Ecuador. They had a relationship that unfortunately turned violent while she was pregnant with Jailyn. He became physical with her. She came back to Cleveland and never saw him again. Gave birth to Jailyn, and he was never involved in Jailyn's life. She raised two daughters with the help of her parents. She was struggling emotionally, physically, trying to work to support these children. Fast forward to 2023. It's overwhelming. She even tried to harm herself took 20 Motrin, ended up in Metro. in early February of 23, after spending just a few days in a room alone, her mother went to check on her. asked her what was going on. her whole side of her body was numb. Didn't know what was going on. They took her to Hillcrest Hospital. She was admitted there. And they were doing some evaluations for, you know, her migraines. She was complaining about headaches and weakness. Facial drooping - thought it was a possible stroke. They put her on I.V. Depakote which is an anti-seizure also used to treat manic disorder. And at the end of the day, after evaluations, she was clean. Nothing wrong with her brain. They gave her oral Depakote and Effexor two antidepressants and sent her home. She was not very clear on what those were, but she was taking them, supposedly as directed. And then she returned to Hillcrest Hospital again in March. And there was a note from the doctors saying that she should have had plenty of Effexor but she's saying that she's she's out and she needs more and she's coming back with the same problems. So they had her evaluated again and they were saying that her anxiety and her stress were the trigger for these physical manifestations to what was happening to her for the loss of sensation in the side of her body, the numbness. And they prescribed her more Depakote more Effexor, and also to help her sleep. But she wasn't sleeping. And this is in March of 2023. And, you know, take the medications as prescribed and then medications ran out. She wasn't feeling any better. They weren't working. She stopped. You're not supposed to do that with these drugs, Your Honor. These are very serious mental health drugs. And you need to be tapered off of these medications. Or there could be some side effects, not only are there side effects, but the actual underlying conditions that she may have been suffering from are also going unmedicated at this time. And then we get into her trip and yeah, I'm not going through that again. That's the worst thing I've heard. And I commend the prosecution, the detectives, for their work. It was unimaginable, terrible. And I feel for all you guys having to deal with that, too, and her family as well as when the prosecution showed pictures of her on her trip. Pictures can be deceiving personally for having myself suffer from depression and anxiety. You can't ... you can't tell what a person's going through from a picture, what they're dealing with on the inside. And I'm thankful for the support that I had from my family, my friends, my doctors. She didn't have any of that. she was hiding it from herself, from her parents, or nobody knew what she was suffering from her doctors, even thought it was migraines and possible strokes. And to be honest when I first met her, you Honor, after this happened in June, I met a person that was devoid of emotion, just wave after hearing what had happened on the news. And then I get the call. She wants to meet with me and I go talk to her. It was not what I expected is this. She had no emotion. I she couldn't explain anything. I had no idea I was talking to her. But I'll tell you right now, this is not the same person, this person that was compliant on her medications. She's been taking them with the through the prison throughout the whole time that she's been in here. You know, again and again, there's no justification for her actions. When she was out there, what she was doing, she could have called somebody. She could have done this. Yes. But when you're in that state, when you're off medication, mismanaging your thoughts, you're not thinking clearly. Her body just she had to get out and she was having fun. If she was okay in her mind, Jailyn was okay. And of course that's not the case. But I will point to when she did finally get home and we heard that 911 call. She ... she didn't want this to happen. You could hear that ... screaming, help me, my daughter's dying. Yes, because of your actions, because of what your choices were. And you took responsibility for that. But that ... that call, that one tiny breach from whatever was going on in her head, that reality that her daughter was dying, she was calling for help. She didn't want that. [PROSECUTOR] - Lastly, Your Honor, you're going to hear that Ms. Candelario was depressed and no one more than I appreciate mental health and mental health issues and the programs that this court and my office have tried to implement to help folks with mental health needs. This is not the case here. This is not the case at all. Her actions speak louder than words. She had the wherewithal to leave Cuyahoga County and drive to Detroit to be not with one man, but with two, let alone leaving a child, her own flesh and blood in a Pack-N-Play. And during the time that she has been locked up, she has been making plans for the future, talking to other folks at other jails, other prisons. She had a conversation which I find more disturbing than not. But on November 26, 2023, instead of wrought with emotion, wracked with guilt crying about the death of her child, she's talking ... talking with a friend about her trip to Puerto Rico and what a blast it was and how much the car cost. And they got a truck versus a car, even though it was more expensive and they were concerned about the other woman that was on the trip because she liked to spend money and they spent money on food. There was never a mention about her daughter in her phone calls. And in fact, on January 6 of 2024, she's talking to her mother, who she repeatedly talks to. And they talked about God, God, God is forgiving, God is this. You also have to take responsibility for your actions. Before the judge handed down his sentence, Kristel Candelario was offered the opportunity to speak. [JUDGE] - Ms. Candelario, want to stand up [JUDGE] - and address the court? Your Honor. Good morning. I'm sorry. [TRANSLATOR] - There's so much pain that I have in regards to the loss [TRANSLATOR] - of my baby, Jailyn. [TRANSLATOR] - I'm extremely hurt about everything that happened. [TRANSLATOR] - I am not trying to justify my actions [TRANSLATOR] - But nobody knew how much I was suffering [TRANSLATOR] - and what I was going through. [TRANSLATOR] - Every day I ask forgiveness from God [TRANSLATOR] - and from my daughter Jailyn. [TRANSLATOR] - I'm a person who believes in God. [TRANSLATOR] - And I recognize [TRANSLATOR] - today that me, all of us, [TRANSLATOR] - are sometimes subject to the enemy. God and my daughter have forgiven me. [JUDGE] - As the Court ... I have to remember Jailyn, where you do not. 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 will be that prison will at least feed you and give you liquids that you denied her. Based on all these factors and based on all of the things I've looked at ... and I'm marking this as State's exhibit one for the court reporter ... On count one, aggravated murder, I'm going to sentence you to life in prison without the possibility of parole.