Four Year Old Twins Suffocate in Wooden Chest

It breaks our hearts to read of children passing away, but this story could be a valuable safety alert for you mummies and daddies.

Do your children have a wooden toy chest? Please take note. This article shares details of the death of two young children so please read at your own discretion.

A pair of four-year-old twins have tragically died after falling asleep together in their cedar toy chest in the night, suffocating in their sleep.

Twins Aurora and Kellan had been put bed by their dad, Don Starr, on August 25th but seemingly decided to snuggle up inside the box where they kept their teddies and soft toys. Due to the lid possibly accidentally closing, the twins ran out of oxygen as they slept and were found dead by an older sibling who thought that they were still fast asleep.

Their mum has taken to Facebook to share the devastating experience and to warn other parents of the potential dangers of wooden chests and boxes.

"Not many will know the pain of losing two children at the same time and losing them in a way that makes no sense..."

The tragedy happened on Friday, September 1st, during the evening when their mum was at work, and their dad was responsible for putting their four children - two older sons and the twins - to bed. It is thought that the twins woke up during the night and decided to play in their room, which wasn't unusual for them according to their mother. However, on this particular night, the twins chose to snuggle up and fall asleep inside a wooden cedar toy chest where their teddies are usually stored.

Going into details of what happened, the heartbroken mum says she thinks that her twins may have moved or kicked whilst sleeping, accidentally causing the lid to close. She had no idea, like many others parents, that the majority of wooden toy chests actually become airtight AND soundproof when they're closed - a terrifying thought. As the twins slept together in their cosy space, they slowly ran out of oxygen over the course of the night, ultimately leading to them passing away in their sleep due to asphyxiation.

When their mum came home from work the next morning and found that the twins weren't awake and running around as usual, the family searched frantically for them, with their older son, Axton, making the heartbreaking discovery. He called out "Mommy, I found them! They are so silly, just sleeping in the toy box." In the tense moments after that, it became agonisingly obvious that it was too late to save the twins. Sharing her utter agony and bewilderment in her Facebook post, she said;

"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... I NEED to live for my two amazing big boys, and I WILL [...] everything in me hopes that I will know someday because not knowing hurts too bad to keep living..."

She begged her followers and people reading her post to be careful particularly if they have similar wooden toy chests and to remove or destroy them as soon as possible to avoid the same tragic accidents happening to another family in future.

The team at Bump, Baby & You send their deepest condolences to the family and hope that by sharing this distressing story, it helps to prevent future tragic accidents.

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