Toddler Dies After Mom Leaves Her Home Alone To Go on Vacation: Police

An Ohio mother has been charged with murder after she allegedly left her child at home for a week while she went on vacation.

Kristel Candelario, 31, from Cleveland, left her 16-month-old child to travel to Puerto Rico and Detroit from June 8 to June 16, according to city officials.

When Candelario returned home on Friday, June 16, she found her daughter Jailyn was unresponsive.

According to CBS affiliate WOIO, the toddler was taken from the 3100 block of West 97th Street in the Cudell neighborhood to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner.

The medical examiner later reported that Jailyn died on June 16. No cause of death had been released by the medical examiner as of Wednesday.

Investigators said the girl was extremely dehydrated and apprehended Candelario following the child's death.

Neighbor Suleyn Gonzalez told WOIO that the baby was typically cared for by her grandmother.

She said: "(The baby's) mom always wanted to go out and just left her with her grandma and all that."

Candelario has been charged with murder and will return to court on June 28 for a pre-trial, WOIO said.

Newsweek has contacted the medical examiner and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff for comment via email.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that there were 1,020 reported homicide deaths in Ohio in 2021 and that the death rate in the state that year was 9.3 per 100,000 people.

According to the CDC, child abuse and neglect are common problems in the U.S.

The CDC said at least one in seven children nationwide have experienced child abuse or neglect in the past year.

It added: "This is likely an underestimate because many cases are unreported. In 2020, 1,750 children died of abuse and neglect in the United States."

There have been several reports of young children having died after being neglected by their parents.

Earlier this year, a New Mexico mother was arrested for first-degree murder after the body of her newborn baby was found in a hospital trash can.

The Artesia Police Department, who operate in southeast New Mexico, apprehended Alexee J. Trevizo on Wednesday, May 10.

Trevizo went to the emergency room in January for back pain but was told that she was pregnant.

A May 10 Artesia police Facebook post read: "The deceased baby was transported to the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) of New Mexico who performed an autopsy of the victim. OMI determined the manner of death to be homicide on March 28, 2023."