CLEVELAND — A Cleveland woman has been charged with murder after police say she left her 16-month-old child all alone to go on vacation for more than a week.
According to an affidavit from Cleveland Municipal Court, 20-year-old Kristel Candelario found her daughter, Jailyn, unresponsive last Friday morning at their home on West 97th Street. Jailyn was later pronounced dead at the scene, and investigators noted she was "extremely dehydrated."
Upon further questioning, authorities say Kristel Candelario admitted to going to both Puerto Rico and Detroit for a total of eight days, all while leaving Jailyn alone and without care inside the house. Officials also observed Jailyn's play bin packed with "soiled blankets and a bottom liner, saturated with urine and feces."
Neighbors on 97th Street in Cleveland were devastated when they learned of the baby's death and Calendario’s subsequent arrest on Sunday.
“We were absolutely heartbroken. We loved Jailyn a lot,” said Suleym.
Suleym and her mother Iris didn’t want to share their last name. They said they first met Jailyn in August 2022 when her Calendario asked if they would watch her for the weekend.
Days turned into weeks, they said, and Calendario wouldn’t pick up the phone or would “make excuses” for why she hadn’t returned to pick up Jailyn.
“I was the one calling her saying, ‘Look I need milk. I need money. I don’t have money to buy milk for your baby.’ What am I supposed to do?” Iris remembers saying.
She said it got to the point where Jailyn was calling her “mama”. They cared for her for a month and a half and watched her several more times since then.
Suleym, 13, said she loved Jailyn like a sister.
“Jailyn really didn’t deserve what happened to her. She was amazing and really adorable and I miss her a lot,” she said.
The neighbors wish Calendario would have asked them to watch Jailyn, rather than leave her home alone as court records state.
“I wish for her to pay for what she did to her daughter,” Iris said.
Candelario appeared in court for arraignment Tuesday morning. She is currently being held in the Cuyahoga County Jail on a $1 million bond, with her next court date scheduled for June 28 at 8:30 a.m.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner will rule on Jailyn's exact cause of death. Her mother's case is expected to eventually go to a grand jury.