Two young siblings in Florida have died after being found unresponsive in the backseat of a car that had been abandoned along the interstate, just a few feet from where their 42-year-old mother allegedly tried to kill herself by leaping from an overpass onto the train tracks below.
The deceased children have been identified as fraternal 3-year-old twins Milendhet and Milendhere Napoleon-Cadet and their mother has been identified as Shirlene Napoleon Alcime, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
According to a news release from the Miami-Dade Police Department, officers at about 2 a.m. on Friday responded to a call from a passerby who told the emergency dispatcher that they had found two children unresponsive.
“Upon the officers’ arrival, the female that was accompanying the children, jumped over the expressway wall, fell from a considerable height, and landed on the railroad tracks,” police said in the release. “Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded and transported the toddlers to an area hospital and the female to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in critical condition. Despite their efforts to save them, medical personnel pronounced both children deceased.”
Authorities said that the manner and cause of death for the two children would be determined by a pending autopsy. The mother has not been charged.
Miami-Dade police Detective Andre Martin provided some additional information to Miami CBS affiliate WFOR.
“Just after our units arrived, they located a female on the scene who was the driver of the vehicle. She was driving the vehicle where these juveniles were located” Martin said. “And that adult female went over the railing to the on-ramp onto the railroad tracks which is a considerable distance.”
He also spoke about how difficult the case was for everyone involved.
“Not just as a police officer, but as a father. Any case, any incident, such as this one that results in the death of a child is very, very difficult. My prayers are with the family of these children,” he told the station. “There should be no incident that results in the loss of a child, especially the ages of three and four years old. And we just really hope we can figure out exactly what happened here.”
The children’s father, Milson Caldet, told the Miami Herald that the tragic news about his kids devastated him.
“I went to work at 5 a.m. Thursday, I returned home at 10:45. I did not see the wife home. I did not see the children. I went to go check in the office. I did not see her in the office and I started calling. She never picked up the phone and I didn’t know what happened,” he said. “She is not someone who has mental problems. She is someone who works in the Haitian community. We have a business. I don’t know what happened.”
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