4-year-old twins suffocate in toy chest: ‘Their souls were too perfect,’ mom says

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A devastated Florida mother whose 4-year-old twins suffocated in a wooden toy chest said she and her family are struggling to comprehend the tragedy. 

“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,” Sadie Myers wrote in a Facebook post. 

“Maybe because their souls were too perfect for this world.”

The mother of four, from Jacksonville, recounted what happened Aug. 26 when she found her lifeless babies, Aurora and Kellan Starr, in their room.

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Sadie Myers and her husband, Don Starr, right, lost their twins, pictured, Aug. 26 when they suffocated in a toy chest in their Jacksonville, Fla., home. (GoFundMe)

On Friday night, Aug. 25, her husband, Don Starr, put their older boys and their twins to bed while Myers was at work. When she returned home a few hours later, she checked in on their sleeping children, ate dinner and went to bed.

“At some point early that morning the twins woke each other up and decided they wanted to play in their room rather than sleep. They do this a lot,” Myers wrote. “They usually fall asleep in some weird place in their room with toys left everywhere.”

But this time the twins decided to go back to sleep in the cedar toy chest used to store all their stuffed animals. 

Sadie Myers, Don Starr and their four children. The couple’s 4-year-old twins died Aug. 26 after suffocating in a cedar toy chest in the family’s Jacksonville, Fla., home. (Facebook)

“They pulled out all but a couple of stuffed animals,” Myers wrote. “I guess they left some to keep it comfy in there, then they laid inside.

“I’m assuming [they] said ‘good night kell kell’ and “night night sissy,'” Myers wrote. “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.”

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The next morning, Don went to check on the twins while the older boys played outside, but he couldn’t find them. After tearing the house apart, one of the older boys located his beloved siblings angelically cuddling. 

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

Sadie Myers, left, holds her twin daughter. At right are her twins, Aurora and Kellan, who died Aug. 26 after suffocating in a cedar toy chest in their home in Jacksonville, Fla. (Facebook)

Myers ran to their side. 

“Within a few seconds I knew something wasn’t right, but I also quickly realized it was already too late,” Myers wrote.

Like many parents, Myers didn’t know that most wooden chests, once closed, are airtight and soundproof. 

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“As they slept, all snuggled up together, they slowly ran out of oxygen within a couple of hours and passed away,” she wrote. “They never even knew it was happening.”

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office responded to the home about noon, according to an incident report obtained by Fox News Digital. The deaths remain under investigation. 

Aurora and Kellan Starr, 4, died Aug. 26, after they crawled into a cedar toy chest and fell asleep in their home in Jacksonville, Fla. (GoFundMe)

Myers said the family is overwhelmed by grief. 

“Not many will ever know the feeling of trying not to spend EVERY WAKING SECOND crying in agony, so hard that it makes you fall over in pain, but we are trying soooo hard not to let our boys see us this way,” Myers wrote. 

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A GoFundMe account for the family has raised $24,965 as of Wednesday afternoon.  

Rebecca Rosenberg is a veteran journalist and book author with a focus on crime and criminal justice. Email tips to rebecca.rosenberg@fox.com and @ReRosenberg.