Two parents are heartbroken after their twins died in a tragic toy box accident.
Kellan and Aurora Starr, from Jacksonville, Florida, were sleeping in their beds like any normal night at their Jacksonville home.
Their mom, Sadie Myers, said she came home from work and checked on them and saw they were perfectly fine.
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However, she's penned a heartbreaking post on social media explaining that they must have woken up at some point and decided to 'play in their room rather than sleep'.
"They do this a lot. And then they usually fall asleep in some weird place in their room with toys left everywhere so mom and dad can see proof of their late night playing when we get up in the morning," Sadie said.
"Friday night the weird place they decided to snuggle up and go back to sleep was in their cedar toy chest that we use to store all their stuffed animals."
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However, she believes something happened while they were inside the box and the lid ended up shutting.
“They laid inside head to toe, with one arm each over their twin,” she continued.
“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.
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“There was no sudden gasp for air, it was a very slow transition from sleep to passing on.”
It wasn't until later that Kellan and Aurora's older brother Axton found them inside the box.
“[We] assumed the twins were still sleeping," she said.
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"Don went to check for them and this is when we realised something was wrong, so we all immediately started panicking, yelling for them, turning the house upside down, yelling up and down the street.
“Then Axton said ‘Mommy I found them! They are so silly just sleeping in the toy box’.
“I ran in to check and within a few seconds I knew something wasn’t right, but I also quickly realised it was already too late.”
Sadie says their tragic deaths 'make no sense to me and never will' and she's called on people to destroy their child's toy box to ensure this doesn't happen to another family.
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She added: "We will be going to family therapy sessions … 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 four years possible.
“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."
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family deal with this horrible tragedy and it has already raised more than $34,000.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office told WPTV their homicide unit responded to the home.
They said the children showed no signs of trauma, everyone in the house was interviewed and no charges were filed.
Topics: US News
Stewart Perrie