A grandmother in Florida was arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter for the death of her seven-month-old granddaughter, who died less than a year after her older brother drowned in a pond while also in the grandmother’s care.
Sixty-five-year-old Tracy Nix was babysitting seven-month-old Uriel Schock on November 1, 2022, when the infant was found dead inside an SUV where she had been left for hours in 90-degree heat.
The SUV, a 2019 Lexus, was parked outside Nix’s home with all the windows shut.
Nix left her granddaughter in the hot car and went inside her home, where she spent the afternoon talking to her dog and practicing the piano.
The grandmother told investigators from the Hardee County Sheriff’s Office that she had forgotten the child in the vehicle after getting home from lunch with several friends.
Nix said it was only when another of her grandchildren arrived that she remembered she had left Uriel in the SUV all afternoon.
Nix’s husband, Nun Ney Nix, found Uriel in the car’s back seat unresponsive and unsuccessfully attempted CPR.
The infant’s mother, Kaila Nix, said thinking about her baby’s last moments was gut-wrenching. The infant’s father, Drew Schock, wondered how the grandmother forgot about the baby.
Uriel died 11 months after her older brother, 16-month-old Ezra Schock, drowned while also in Nix’s care.
On December 21, 2021, Nix reportedly fell asleep on the couch and left her grandson, whom she was babysitting, to wander unsupervised around the home. She could not locate the toddler when she woke up, so she called her husband.
The little boy was found unresponsive in a pond just outside his grandmother’s home.
Kaila and her husband said they did not trust Nix to watch any of their children after their son drowned in her care, but they decided to give her a second chance since Ezra’s death was ruled accidental.
Nix could face between 12 to 30 years if convicted.
