The aunt of twins who tragically died in toy box incident has raised nearly $35,000 to help the family.
Kellan and Aurora Starr from Jacksonville, Florida, were soundly asleep at home when mom Sadie Myers came home from work and checked in on them.
However, later in the night, she writes on social media that they must have woken at some point 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 wrote.
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“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."
But tragically, the mom believes something happened while they were inside, with the lid shutting on them.
Sadie writes that she didn’t know that most ‘wooden toy chests once closed are AIR TIGHT and also sound proof’.
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So, while laying together head to toe, they ‘slowly ran out of oxygen’ and ‘never even knew it was happening’.
After a frantic search, her son found them ‘just sleeping’ in the toy box but the mom realised ‘it was already too late’.
The two children died with Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office telling WPTV their homicide unit responded.
They said the twins had no signs of trauma, everyone in the house was interviewed and no charges were filed.
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Aurora and Kellan’s aunt Deanna has launched a GoFundMe to help raise money for the family ‘while they live through the most horrific and painful thing’.
Since it was set up last week, the fundraiser has so far raised nearly $35,000 of its $10,000 target from over 500 donations.
Deanna wrote an update today, thanking people for their ‘beautiful messages’.
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She also added: “The pain they’re [the family] experiencing is something I can’t describe.”
The aunt also previously gave a message from Sadie and husband Donn, who said: “We’ve talked about this page and how it means so much just knowing that so many people are thinking about us and the beautiful babies we lost.”
Sadie has also called on people to destroy their child’s toy box to prevent this tragedy from happening to other families.
She also added: “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."
Jess Battison