Four-year-old Florida twins suffocate to death in toy chest

A pair of beloved 4-year-old Florida twins suffocated to death after falling asleep in their wooden toy chest last month, their devastated mother confirmed in a wrenching Facebook post this week.

“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,” Sadie Myers wrote.

The dedicated parent was at work last Friday night when her husband, Don Starr, put the twins — Aurora, a girl, and Kellan, a boy — and their two older brothers to bed for the night.

Starr worked during the day while his wife toiled at night to avoid having to leave their children with a babysitter, her sister, Deanna Myers said.

At some point early Saturday morning, the twins woke up and decided to play together.

Myers wrote that the closely-bonded siblings routinely rose at odd hours and she would find them sleeping in various places in the morning with toys strewn about their shared room.

“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,” Myers wrote.

The twins had removed most of the stuffed animals from the chest, but kept a few in place to provide some cushioning.

Myers said that they then fell asleep, each with one arm draped over the other.

The mom said she assumed they bade each other goodnight as they always did.

“Good night Kell Kell,” Aurora would whisper.

“Night night sissy,” her brother would respond.

“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,” Myers said.

When she awoke in the morning, the Myers said she felt some pangs of panic after seeing that they weren’t in bed and not immediately visible.

The entire family frantically raced about the house, calling for the two children.

Finally, one of their older brothers opened the chest and saw them inside.

Unaware of the tragedy that had just befallen his family, the boy assumed they were still asleep.

“Mommy!,” he exclaimed proudly. “I found them! They are so silly just sleeping in the toy box.

But Myers said she realized instantly that the twins were gone.

“I went to check and within a few seconds I knew something wasn’t right, but I also quickly realized it was already too late,” she said. “It makes no sense to me and never will.”

Jacksonville Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene, but life-saving efforts were futile.

The department revealed little of the tragedy in an effort to protect the family’s privacy.

“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!!!” Myers said on Facebook. 

A GoFundMe account organized by Myers’ sister, Deanna, had raised more than $8,000 as of Tuesday.

The twins’ aunt said their parents labored hard to give them a fulfilling life.

“They both worked full time jobs, one in the morning and one in the evening so they would never have to leave the children alone with a sitter,” she said.

“I know they were always exhausted but they were still able to be so present and so loving with each of their four children, every single day, no exceptions,” she added.