A US woman is demanding for her own mother to go to jail after two of her children died in their grandmother's care less than one year apart.
The daughter, seven months old, died after being left in a hot car, while the son, aged 16 months, drowned. Both were in the care of their grandmother at the time.
"If I'm objective, she needs to go to prison," the children's mother Kaila Nix told WFTS last week. "As her daughter, it kills me to say it. As their mother, I demand it. I will fight for them."
The grandmother, 65-year-old Tracey Nix, was arrested and charged in November 2022 with aggravated manslaughter and leaving a child unsupervised in a motor vehicle.
Authorities said Tracey left her seven-month-old granddaughter Uriel inside a vehicle outside her home in Flordia for several hours. She claims she forgot the child was in the car.
Tracey had driven home from lunch with Uriel in the car at 1:40pm and was waiting for her older grandson to arrive so the pair could go out to dinner. When he arrived after 4:30pm Tracey suddenly realised Uriel was still in the car, court documents stated.
Tracey's husband immediately pulled the baby out of the car and began CPR while an ambulance was being called. Uriel was pronounced dead at the scene.
Temperatures that day reached up to 32 degrees.
It comes less than a year after the death of Kaila and her partner's son. The couple also has an older child.
In December 2021, the couple's 16-month-old son Ezra died while in Tracey's care. According to court records, Tracey fell asleep and the child wandered outside and drowned in a pond near her home.
The drowning was ruled an accident as there was insufficient evidence to establish culpable negligence.
"We were anxious, but I loved my mother and I am a daughter that wanted her mom in her life in some capacity, and in that moment, I thought that I could believe in second chances," Kaila told WFTS. "When I was told that Ezra's death was an accident, some sliver child part of me, thought, 'okay good, I get to keep this mom. This grandmother. This person.'"
Kaila's partner Drew Schock told the outlet they couldn't fathom it happening twice.
"Somebody has to answer for that," he said.
