A Florida woman is demanding prison time for her own mother after her two young children died less than a year apart while allegedly in their grandmother’s care, one died in a hot car and the other accidentally drowned.
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, court records show. The charges are related to the November 1, 2022 death of 7-month-old Uriel Schock.
Authorities said Nix left Uriel in his vehicle outside his Wauchula home for several hours after returning from lunch. Nix said he «forgot» the boy was in the car, according to court documents.
«How do you forget a girl?» Uriel’s father, Drew Schock, said in a tearful one this week with the local station. wfts.
Nix told authorities that her daughter, Kaila Schock, asked her to babysit Uriel while she was on a hair appointment, according to the documents. Nix said that she went to a friend’s house that morning and then she went looking for Uriel.
He then drove to a restaurant to have lunch with his friends, according to the documents. They left the restaurant around 1:40 p.m.
Security footage showed Nix put her granddaughter in the back seat of the car and drove away, authorities said in the documents. Nix said she drove about 10 minutes to her house, parked the car and went inside to talk to her dog and practice the piano.
She told the Hardee County Sheriff’s Office that it wasn’t like she «was running around the house to do anything … I just forgot,» according to the documents.
The court file says that Nix was waiting for his eldest grandson to arrive so he could go out to dinner. After 4:30 pm, she brought two cups of tea to her car for herself and her grandson and then drove the car to her backyard. Authorities said Nix’s husband was in the backyard and the two talked for about 10 minutes, according to the documents.
When the grandson arrived, Nix said it suddenly «occurred» to him that Uriel was still in the car, according to the documents. Nix’s husband immediately pulled the baby out and began CPR while someone called 911.
Uriel was pronounced dead at the scene. The sheriff’s office said temperatures that day in Wauchula reached 90 degrees.
The autopsy showed no signs of injury. His death was ruled a homicide.
Drew Schock told WFTS that he remembers being in the parking lot outside the hospital «trying to understand what just happened. And that it actually… happened twice in our lives.»
In December 2021, the couple’s 16-month-old son, Ezra, died, also in Nix’s care. Court records indicate that Nix was babysitting the child when she fell asleep. The boy wandered outside and drowned in a pond near her house. She was not charged in the incident.
Kaila told the news station that she was six months pregnant with Uriel when her son died. The couple also have an older son. She said that she initially did not trust her mother to take care of her children after Ezra’s death, but she believed in second chances.
“We were anxious, but I loved my mom. And I am a daughter who loved her mother, ”she said through tears. «When I was told that Ezra’s death was an accident, a little part of me was like, ‘Okay. Okay, I’m staying with this mom, this grandma.'»
Kaila said that she knew her mother was taking Uriel to lunch with her friends. Hours later, a sheriff’s deputy arrived at Kaila’s home and delivered the heartbreaking news about her.
«Two kids now that they’re not here anymore,» Drew said. «Someone has to answer for that.»
“She needs to go to prison,” Kaila told the news station. “As her daughter, she kills me to say it. As her mother, I demand it.»
Authorities said Nix’s negligence resulted in the deaths of both children. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 2, court records show.