Mom drives in pond with kidnapped daughter, begs ‘save me’ as girl dies, Florida cops say

A mom who didn’t have custody of her 5-year-old daughter kidnapped her and drove into a retention pond, where her child drowned as she escaped, Florida authorities said.

Now, a judge has sentenced 34-year-old Pamela Cabrera to 30 years in prison during a hearing broadcast by WTLV-WJXX.

McClatchy News reached out to her public defenders for comment Oct. 30 but did not immediately receive a response.

“I’m very regretful for actions that resulted in my daughter’s passing,” Cabrera wrote in a statement read by her attorney, Teresa Sopp, in court. “I’m still suffering about my daughter, Vanity. I’ve been on my medications for two years and I plan on staying on my medications so something like that doesn’t happen again.”

The fatal incident

On March 31, 2022, Cabrera went to her sister’s home in Jacksonville and kidnapped her daughter, according to the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida.

According to a civil suit filed by Cabrera’s sister in Duval County, Cabrera repeatedly tried to kidnap her daughter, both at school and at home, until she finally succeeded.

As she drove away with Vanity, Cabrera ran a string of red lights, and officers started chasing her, according to a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest report. She got on Interstate 95 and drove on the inside shoulder to pass traffic, until she tried to take an exit but failed to make the turn in time, officers said.

She drove into a retention pond and managed to get herself out of the car, law enforcement said.

Officers reported she yelled “Help me. Save me,” while clinging to a tire but “made no attempt to rescue her daughter who was trapped in the front seat of the vehicle.”

The car sank, and a dive team retrieved Vanity’s body, officers said.

Legal recourse

Cabrera was charged with vehicular homicide, aggravated manslaughter of a child, aggravated felony fleeing or attempting to elude causing death or serious bodily injury, battery on a law enforcement officer and battery on an emergency medical care provider, Duval County records show.

Vanity’s aunt, Whitney Baez, told WJXT her niece was “bubbly.”

“She was one of those kids that skipped everywhere,” Baez told the outlet. “She was always just wanting to share fun and laughter.”

Her uncle, Manuel Baez, told WJXT that he and Whitney considered Vanity their daughter.

“Losing her is no different than us losing our biological daughter,” he said. “The pain, in a sense, is still the same.”

Cabrera’s attorneys filed a notice to rely on an insanity defense in July 2022, before Cabrera later pleaded guilty to two of the charges in January.

“She was hospitalized in the state hospital,” Sopp told WTLV-WJXX. “She was in an outpatient program but needed more care than they could give. So I was hoping the judge would consider that.”

In 2022, Whitney Baez told WJXT that her sister isn’t an “evil mom.”

“She’s a mom who loved Vanity and really lost her way with this mental health issue,” she said.

This story was originally published October 30, 2024 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Mom drives in pond with kidnapped daughter, begs ‘save me’ as girl dies, Florida cops say."