#Socialites, this is so heartbreaking. A Florida mom of four is warning other parents after two of her kids, a set of twins, suffocated to death upon falling asleep in their toy chest.
Speaking with PEOPLE, the 36-year-old mother, Sadie Myers, said, “I lost half of my heart. Two of my four children died. I lost both of my beautiful twins, Aurora, my gorgeous baby girl and Kellan, my handsome little boy.”
On August 25, Myers said that she found her 4-year-old twins Kellan and Aurora unresponsive inside of a closed toy chest at their family home in Jacksonville, Florida. With her local authorities and paramedics inside the home, there were several “attempts to revive them,” but sadly, they were soon pronounced deceased.
Per the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, authorities had worked with the Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause of death of the twins. Additionally, no charges have been filed in their deaths.
Since the tragic deaths of her two children, Myers posted a lengthy warning to other parents on her Facebook on September 3. Tagging her partner Don Starr, she began: “Not many will know the pain of losing two children at the same time and losing them in a way that makes no sense, but I have to believe that something in this universe chose them specifically, maybe to protect them from some future tragedy, or maybe because their souls were too perfect for this world, I don’t know, but everything in me hopes that I will know someday, because not knowing hurts too bad to keep living.”
She continued, “What I do know is that I NEED to live for my two amazing big boys, and I WILL, I will make it my sole purpose to give them the most amazing lives, to not let this cause any life long damage to their mental state. We will be going to family therapy sessions to try and help that. Me and Don have explained to them that death is a part of life and that they did an amazing job giving their baby brother and sister the best 4 years possible, and that we were so very LUCKY to get the gift of having the twins with us for even a short time, because they changed us all for the better and brought sooo much light and love into our lives, every second with those twins was full of laughter, silliness, dancing, silly questions and funny faces, games and jokes, happiness and LoVE!!!”
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Explaining what how her twins suffocated to death after falling asleep in their toy chest, the Florida mom said that while she was at work, Starr put the older boys and the twins to bed; and when she got home she checked on everyone and went to sleep. At some point during the early morning hours, the twins woke up and began playing in the room. Myers said they always do this, and are later found knocked out somewhere in the room. However, this time, Myers said, “they decided to snuggle up and go back to sleep in their cedar toy chest that we use to store all their stuffed animals.”
Myers said the twins pulled out only a couple of stuffed animals, “laid inside head to toe with one arm each over their twin.” She added, “Sometime during their sleep one of them must have moved or kicked during a dream and it caused the lid of this old wooden cedar chest to close. Something I did not know and I’m sure many others don’t know is that most wooden toy chests once closed are AIR TIGHT and also sound proof. So as they slept, all snuggled up together, they slowly ran out of oxygen within a couple of hours and passed away. They never even knew it was happening. There was no sudden gasp for air, it was a very slow transition from sleep to passing on.”
The Florida mom said when she woke up later for work, the older boys were already up and playing outside, and she assumed the twins were still sleeping. When Starr went to check on them, they realized something was wrong and everyone began panicking and yelling for them inside, outside and even down the street. Then one of the older boys, Axton, yelled and said, “Mommy I found them! They are so silly just sleeping in the toy box.”
When Myers went to check on them, within a few seconds she realized “something wasn’t right, but also realized it was already too late.” Myers warns other parents, “I hope knowing this helps in some way, and I hope if you have a toy box like this that you destroy it immediately!!! Again, please keep me and my family in your hearts and prayers, because this will never get easier for us.. I love you all.”
Myers’ sister, Deanna, eventually set up a GoFundMe for the Florida mom and her family following the tragedy. As of Monday afternoon (September 11), the fundraiser has received over $41,000.
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