3-Year-Old Twins Dead After Mom Leaves Them Alone in Car, Jumps from Interstate Ramp

The mother was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and the toddlers’ cause of death is still unknown

A pair of 3-year-old twins died after they were found unresponsive and alone in a car while their mother jumped off of a Miami overpass.

Early Friday morning, officers responded to a medical emergency after a call reported that the children, identified as Milendhet and Milendhere Napoleon-Cadet, had been found unresponsive, according to a press release from the Miami-Dade Police Department.

The toddlers were found in the backseat of an SUV in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 ramp near the Turnpike extension around 2 a.m., according to NBC Miami and WPLG, a local ABC affiliate.

They were both foaming at the mouth, police told WPLG.

After officers arrived on the scene, the twins’ mom, identified as 42-year-old Shirlene Napoleon Alcime, jumped over the expressway wall and onto the train tracks below in an apparent suicide, police said.

The toddlers were transported to a nearby hospital, where medical personnel pronounced both children dead, authorities said. The cause of their death is not yet known.

Despite falling “from a considerable height,” the twins’ mother, Alcime, survived and was also taken to the hospital, where she arrived in critical condition, police said.

MPDP Detective Andre Martin told reporters, “Right now, our investigators are working to piece this tragic incident together,” per WPLG.

“There are many, many questions that they have that they’re working to find the answers to,” he added.

Following the twins’ death, their father, Milson Caldet, spoke with both NBC Miami and WPLG, telling the latter, “I really loved my kids.”

Speaking in Haitian Creole, he told NBC Miami, “I don't know about what happened today, why my kids passed away."

They had no known health conditions, he added.

Cadet, who is not married to Alcime but lives with the family, also told NBC Miami that he had not seen any of the kids or their mother since Wednesday and had been trying to contact them.

“He said he's not going to feel okay now,” a neighbor, who was translating for Cadet, added.

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A different neighbor of the family told NBC Miami that they were shocked by the news.

"She’s a very very good neighbor, good person," the neighbor said of Alcime, a local business owner, adding that she "helped everybody."

Speaking with WPLG, Alcime’s friend Suzette Walker Morant said she could not imagine the mother hurting her kids or attempting suicide.

“That’s not her. There has to be something wrong with her for her to do something like that,” Morant told the outlet, noting that she had also not seen Alcime in days.

“She is not that kind of person, so it is so mind-boggling right now to figure out what really went wrong,” Morant added.

Police are currently investigating the toddlers’ deaths, as well as the mother’s suicide attempt.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

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