Babysitter Left Her Daughter In A 133° Car For Five Hours | Ariya Paige Case

Babysitter Left Her Daughter In A 133° Car For Five Hours | Ariya Paige Case

On July 19th, 2023, Ariya’s mother was standing outside Ed Fraser Memorial Hospital in Baker County, Florida. Just 10 minutes earlier, she thought her daughter was napping, safe inside at the babysitter’s house, like every other day. But when she rang that doorbell, the babysitter didn’t answer. She ran straight to her SUV.

And there, still strapped into her car seat, was Ariya. Locked in that car for 5 hours in the middle of the hottest week of the year. But how could this happen? This babysitter wasn’t a stranger. She was the family’s best friend, who had been babysitting since she was 17.

This case involves the loss of a very young child, so I’ll make sure to tell the story with the utmost care and respect, because glorifying her tragedy would be against my ethics. To understand the weight of what was lost, you have to first understand who Ariya was and the family that built their entire world around her.

### A Love Story and a New Beginning

The year is 2016. In Baker County, Florida—a place a world away from Manhattan skylines and Harvard dining halls—two teenagers are falling in love. His name is Justice Kelves Page. He is the kind of young man that was easy with a smile. He grew up in Macclenny, a town of roughly 7,000 people bordered by pine forests and flatland where the biggest landmark is a single stoplight and a sense that life moves at its own honest pace.

Her name is Brooke Taylor LaPoint. Brooke is someone who pays close attention to the world around her. She was warm in a way that feels natural, not forced. She’s creative, thoughtful, and deeply loyal to the people in her life. They were high school sweethearts and everyone at school knew their love story. They dated for 4 years before Justice finally proposed to Brooke. On October 9th, 2021, Brooke and Justice stood across from each other and made it official. Brooke posted that this marriage is the biggest blessing in her life. They were excited to build their dream life. The couple was quite close with Justice’s mom and dad; they loved Brooke as their own daughter.

In January 2022, when Brooke finds out that she is pregnant, Justice’s mother, Pamela Page, a registered nurse, can barely contain herself. This will be the first grandchild, the first of a new generation in the Page family. They already had plans and dreams for the future, painting a nursery, choosing a name, building a life together in a simple, quiet way that made them feel complete.

But the pregnancy was not easy. Somewhere in those months, Brooke’s body begins to struggle. She develops preeclampsia, a condition that raises her blood pressure dangerously high and puts both her and the baby at risk. There is no drawn-out warning. The timeline shifts. The careful countdown they had been marking is suddenly accelerated.

### Ariya’s Arrival

On September 4th, 2022, 6 weeks before anyone was ready, Ariya Renae Page arrived. She weighed just 4 lbs and 1 oz, 17 inches long. Small enough to fit in the palm of Justice’s hand. And to the Page family, she is the most beautiful, breathtaking thing they have ever seen. Ariya was immediately taken to the NICU at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville. Doctors monitored her for 2 weeks before Brooke and Justice finally brought their daughter home. And from the moment she arrived, she was by every account adored by her parents.

For her grandparents, Pam and her husband, meeting their first granddaughter was a moment they would never forget. In chaotic but loving home videos, the family can be heard joking and fawning over her as they adjusted to life with a newborn.

She was a child of summer. She loved being outdoors. She was a beach baby. One of her favorite things in the entire world was riding in the boat with her father. She was her daddy’s princess. At home, she had two inseparable companions: a stuffed rabbit named Mr. Nibbles and a stuffed elephant named Miss Ella. Despite her difficult start, Ariya was surrounded by love. Her grandparents watched with pride as their son and daughter-in-law embraced parenthood with unwavering devotion.

But more than anything, Ariya was, in her family’s own words, a daddy’s girl. A baby so full of life that she would toddle over to her sleeping father and gently smack him awake just because she wanted his attention. And in Brooke’s words, she was her mini-me and her best friend.

### Finding the Babysitter

This was a young working family. Brooke and Justice were like millions of parents across America, building a life, working hard, and leaning on the people around them to help raise their child. After Ariya came home, Brooke took a 12-week maternity leave, and Justice also took paternity leave. They spent every single day of that leave with their daughter, dreading the moment it had to end.

When Brooke’s maternity leave concluded, they needed to find a child care solution. Fortunately, they had family support initially. A family member volunteered to babysit Ariya, and this worked out very well. That arrangement ran smoothly until the family members’ own kids came home for summer break, which meant she could no longer babysit. This is where the search for a new caregiver began.

And that’s when they met a woman who was already babysitting many kids in their neighborhood and was well known for her motherly instincts. Her name was Rhonda Charmaine Jewel. She was 46 years old. In her small community, Rhonda was the woman parents trusted with the most fragile piece of their lives: their kids. Rhonda had been caring for children for most of her adult life. She started babysitting as a teenager from the age of 17, then stepped back to raise her own three children. And when they grew up, she came back to child care. Parents in Macclenny knew her, liked her, and recommended her as she loved being with the kids.

Rhonda wasn’t a licensed daycare operator. She was a neighborhood babysitter. Parents hired directly and paid out of pocket to watch their kids at home. Mothers would describe her as kind, gentle, and attentive. They said she treated the kids like they were her own. One of those children was 10-month-old Ariya Page.

But Ariya wasn’t just another baby on Rhonda’s schedule. For years, Rhonda had been best friends with Monique, Ariya’s grandmother. She was very close to the family from the beginning. She was there at Brooke’s wedding. She was there at Ariya’s baby shower, sitting in the front row, celebrating the arrival of the very child she would one day be trusted to protect.

She would watch Ariya every Monday and Wednesday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The rest of the week was covered by family members. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Ariya’s paternal grandmother, Pamela Page, would care for her at her own house. On Fridays, Ariya’s maternal grandmother, Monique Carter, adjusted her work schedule. Every day had been carefully planned with Ariya surrounded by people her parents knew and trusted. They had done everything they could to make sure their daughter was always in safe hands.

By the summer of 2023, taking care of Ariya had just become part of Rhonda’s everyday life. Every morning, she’d pick her up, strap her into the car seat, and drive over to her place where she was already watching other kids. Then, in the early afternoon, around 1:00 p.m., Ariya’s mom would come and take her home. Rhonda was handling multiple kids at once. It was busy and, honestly, a bit chaotic at times for her. And that’s exactly what makes this case so disturbing. Because before July 19th, 2023, no one saw Rhonda as a risk. She was trusted, a familiar face, someone the family was comfortable with.

### July 19th, 2023

By the time the sun was fully up, the day was already promising to be brutal. It was nearly 100° Fahrenheit, making it one of the hottest days of the year. Around 8:00 that morning, Rhonda Jewel drove to Brooke’s residence in Macclenny to pick up Ariya. Brooke had already fed and dressed Ariya. She also packed her bag, which had all her essentials like diapers, wipes, a pacifier, and some medicines for any emergency.

From there, Jewel drove to a second babysitting job on Esther Street, where three children from the Pascal family were waiting for her. She usually used to go there by 8:30 to 9:00 every day, but today she had to reach early by 8:15, and she was already running late. When she pulled into the driveway, she was focused on getting inside quickly to begin caring for the other children.

In transition from the vehicle to the house, she thought that Ariya was sleeping and didn’t want to disturb her. So, she thought she would get her from the car later. Ariya was sleeping quietly while Jewel entered the house and began babysitting the Pascal children.

Outside, Ariya remained alone in the car. The SUV wasn’t inside a garage or under shelter. It was parked beside the driveway, exposed to the relentless Florida summer sun. As the hours passed, the temperature inside the vehicle climbed higher and higher.

This is the part of the story where your mind immediately wants to scream a single word: *How?* How do you not bring a baby inside? How do you not notice a missing child in your care? How does a 10-month-old just slip out of a person’s mind? How can you just forget someone’s baby in a car for 5 hours?

Inside that house, life went on. Rhonda Jewel fed children. She changed their diapers, maybe broke up fights over toys. A completely ordinary day of babysitting, like the thousands of times she had done before. And outside in the driveway, in the back of a closed SUV, the temperature began to climb.

### The Discovery

Just after 1:00 p.m., Brooke Page arrived to pick up her daughter. It should have been the most mundane moment of the day, but it would later turn into something that would terrify her entire life. It was the arrival of Ariya’s mother that shattered the illusion. When she asked Rhonda about Ariya, she immediately ran towards the SUV to realize she forgot her inside.

Brooke followed her, and when she looked through the window, she saw Ariya still strapped into her car seat. The same bag Brooke had packed that morning sitting right beside her, completely untouched. Not a single thing was removed from it. Jewel pulled Ariya from the seat, carried her to the garage, and called 911 immediately.

Brooke dropped to her knees beside her daughter and began CPR following instructions from the 911 operator, breathing air into lungs that had already been still for too long. First responders raced to the scene, where Brooke and Rhonda were crying inconsolably. Deputies and emergency medical services attempted life-saving measures. Brooke was feeling helpless and angry.

Ariya was immediately taken to a local hospital. Every minute was very crucial here. Ariya’s grandmother rushed to the hospital as soon as she heard of what happened. She and Brooke were waiting outside, praying to God to save Ariya. And then the doctor came with the worst news any parent can receive.

In the chaotic aftermath at the hospital, Brooke collapsed in grief. *”I don’t know what to do… No, no. I can’t do this anymore. I don’t want it. It was to pay the babysitter and I don’t want to pay her. I can’t do this.”* Loved ones gently guided her to the hospital chapel to process the unthinkable.

### The Investigation

The Baker County Sheriff’s Office treated Ariya’s death as a criminal matter almost immediately and took Rhonda Jewel into interrogation. While deputies gathered her belongings and facilitated a brief phone call to her husband who was at the grocery store, the reality of the situation began to set in. Rhonda Jewel was arrested, and this was the moment when she started describing in detail what exactly happened that morning. Her story would decide if she really forgot the child in the car, or if this was intentional.

> **Officer:** “How many kids were in the car when you got to that house today? Just her?”
> **Rhonda:** “Just her.”
> **Officer:** “So, that was at 8:00. What time did you realize the baby was out?”
> **Rhonda:** “When it was 911.”
> **Officer:** “When 911 was called?”
> **Rhonda:** “Yes.”

Rhonda clearly told the officer that she spoke with Ariya’s mother during the day, all while the baby was still in the car outside. And yet, according to her, it just didn’t click. How is it possible that you talked to the mother and still forgot about the baby? Detectives felt something was really off.

> **Officer:** “You said you noticed that she was asleep when you got there.”
> **Rhonda:** “I assumed she was asleep. She wasn’t making noise. Her mom said that she would probably go to sleep. So, I just assumed she had fell asleep…”
> **Officer:** “Are you going through something personally that would cause you not to, you know, think about it?”
> **Rhonda:** “Our kid moved into college, so we’re doing that… and we’re supposed to go on vacation tomorrow and… I forgot the baby.”

*I forgot the baby.* That is the core of her entire defense. Although detectives weren’t satisfied, they pushed on her routine, trying to understand if there was ever a moment when she intended to go back for Ariya. After listening to Rhonda’s account and reviewing the scene, Baker County authorities made their position brutally clear. This was not, in their eyes, an unavoidable accident.

Investigators at the scene would later confirm that the temperature of the car that day went up to 134° when the car door was open, and probably 150° to 160° when Ariya was inside the car. It is extremely neglectful and dangerous behavior, nothing you would expect from someone who already has three kids and has been babysitting for so many years.

She was booked into the Baker County Detention Center. At her first court appearance, the judge set bond at $25,000 with GPS monitoring if she were released. She was barred from contacting Ariya’s family and ordered to surrender her passport. Prosecutors actually asked the judge to deny bond entirely to keep her locked up, but the judge made a telling observation: at that point, the case was not charged as murder. It was a manslaughter case, and so the judge allowed bond.

By the time the case reached a jury, Rhonda Jewel faced three charges: Murder, child neglect, and manslaughter. The prosecution’s argument was straightforward. A baby was placed in her care and that baby died. Whatever the reason, whatever the explanation, Rhonda Jewel was the one responsible for Ariya that day. And Ariya did not come home because of her foolishness. Together, the charges reflected the prosecution’s position that what happened that day was not simply a tragic mistake, but conduct that rose to the level of criminal responsibility under Florida law.

### The Funeral & “Justice for Ariya”

On July 25th, 2023, just 6 days after Ariya’s death, the Baker community came together for something no family should ever have to endure: the funeral of a 10-month-old child. At Christian Fellowship Temple in Macclenny, friends, relatives, and neighbors gathered to celebrate Ariya’s life. Before the service began, mourners quietly filed past her small casket, pausing beside photographs of the little girl as her family knew her—smiling, laughing, and surrounded by love.

When the ceremony came to an end, Ariya’s family made one final journey to Quitman Cemetery in nearby Sanderson. There, in the quiet of a small country cemetery, they laid her to rest. Ariya would never celebrate her first birthday.

Her mother-in-law would later explain in an interview how difficult this time would have been without the support of their family and community. Even though Ariya had only spent 10 months with them, their entire lives revolved around that sweet baby, and suddenly the loss of it all had an immense impact. The medical examiner confirmed that she had simply gone to sleep and didn’t wake up.

But here is what you need to understand, because it matters enormously for what comes next: Brooke and Justice Page did not go home and grieve quietly. They rose up. In the days following Ariya’s death, before the funeral flowers had even wilted, the family and dozens of friends gathered at the intersection of Macclenny Avenue and 6th Street. They held enormous posters bearing Ariya’s photographs emblazoned with the words that would become the rallying cry of the entire case: **Justice for Ariya**.

The family started speaking out, hoping no other child would ever have to go through this. *”Every time you do get into a hot car, just remember that that was my daughter in that car for 5 hours,”* Brooke said. *”I just don’t want any other babies or any other children to ever experience what Ariya did, ’cause it hurts. I wake up every day and I tell myself I got to do this for Ariya.”*

The family began pushing for a legislative effort they called “Ariya’s Law,” aimed at raising awareness and tightening the rules around children left in vehicles. Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill officially designating April as Hot Car Death Prevention Month in the state of Florida. The month was chosen deliberately—it falls right before the heat arrives, exactly when families need the reminder most.

In 2023, the year Ariya died, 25 children in the United States died after being left in hot cars. Ariya was number 16. The following year, that number jumped to 40 children in a single year, and Florida—where Ariya lived and died—ranks number two in the entire nation for hot car deaths, behind only Texas. Ariya’s name was no longer just on a headstone or a funeral program. It was in headlines across Florida. Her family had turned unbearable loss into a movement, but there was still one place they hadn’t found justice yet: the courtroom.

### The Trial

November 2024. More than a year had passed since Ariya died in that car, and now the case that had divided Baker County finally moved into the courtroom. 12 jurors were asked to answer one brutally simple question: Was this a crime or a catastrophic mistake?

The state called Ariya’s father first. Justice Page walked to that witness stand knowing exactly who was sitting in that courtroom: the woman who had his daughter in her care, the woman who drove his 10-month-old girl to her death. He sat just a few feet away from her, and he told the jury what it felt like to get that phone call.

> **Prosecution:** “Were you ever allowed to go see Ariya?”
> **Justice:** “Yes, sir.”
> **Prosecution:** “And where was that at?”
> **Justice:** “Um, it’s in a hospital room. She was laying in the bed.”

Then it was Brooke’s turn. She cried through almost all of it. There were moments where she could barely get the words out. And when the prosecution placed photographs in front of her—photographs of Ariya, of the car, of that bag that was never once opened—she broke completely.

> “She was a very bubbly little girl. She was never a bad baby. She was constantly so happy, but she would stare through you like no other person. Even me, she’d look at me and make me laugh at those little goofy looks. At that point, she was saying ‘dada.’ She was just getting to the point where she was able to pull up on stuff. Like she was about to start walking… You would just have to see her and you would just fall in love.”

Brooke also told the jury something small that destroyed everyone in that room. She said the last video she had of Ariya on her phone showed her daughter doing something remarkable for a baby that young: pulling herself up to stand. Almost to her first steps, and she never got to take them.

The prosecution’s message to the jury was focused and unrelenting. Rhonda Jewel was not an overwhelmed parent. She was not someone rushing through a chaotic morning with three kids and a forgotten cup of coffee. She was a paid professional. She was hired specifically to care for this child. And her one job, her only job that morning, was to keep Ariya safe. She failed at it completely, and a baby died. To the state, the words “I forgot” were not a defense. They were a confession of failure.

The defense told a different story. They told the jury that what happened that day was a tragedy, not a crime. That there was no motive, no intent, no malice. That Rhonda Jewel had no mindset of a killer, and nothing in the evidence suggested otherwise. They argued that a catastrophic memory failure, as devastating as it was, is not the same as a criminal act.

The defense then called Rhonda Jewel to testify. Jewel recounted the exact moment it all came back to her: Brooke arriving at the door, money in one hand, keys in the other, and then, just like that, the realization hitting her like a wall.

> “I opened up the door and I seen her, and I was still in shock why she was there. And so, she had money in her hand and her keys. And that’s when I realized that I didn’t get the baby out the car. I forgot. Oh my god, the baby. I forgot the baby in the car. And so, I pushed her out the way. And I was screaming, *Oh my god, Brooke. Oh my god.* And I ran to the car. And I opened up the door. And she was still there.”

But here is the detail that stopped everyone in that courtroom cold. After she pulled Ariya from the car, in the middle of that chaos, in the middle of that horror, Rhonda Jewel went back inside the house to check if she’d left the stove on.

> **Defense:** “Did you go back inside Stacy’s home at that point?”
> **Rhonda:** “No, I remembered that they were supposed to be eating lunch. And I went to go check and see if the stove was still on. I couldn’t remember if I turned it off… And I just asked Maddie, the oldest daughter, I said, *just please keep them in here. Don’t let them come out the house.*”

She couldn’t remember whether she turned the stove off, but for 5 hours she never once thought about the baby in the car. Now it was time for Rhonda to face the consequences.

### Sentencing

December 20, 2024. One month after the verdict, Rhonda Jewel was back in the same courtroom for sentencing. Prosecutors asked for 20 years. Her attorney read letters from the community, from parents she had cared for, from neighbors who had known her for decades. They described a woman who hadn’t slept, who hadn’t eaten, who was gutted by what she had done.

Then Rhonda stood up herself. She turned to Brooke and Justice, said their names, and apologized for what she did to their child.

> “I don’t know if I can say anything to heal what I have done. You will never know how truly sorry I am. I was the go-to person to take care of your child. To make sure she was happy, comfortable, and loved… And I let you down. You trusted me and your family. Brooke and Justice, I have prayed for that awful day that you could find it in your heart to forgive me. I pray you remember that I loved Ariya and I loved y’all… Brooke, you were my best friend. And you were like family. Your kids were my kids.”

Rhonda Jewel’s words were little consolation for the Page family, and they let her know it.

> **Brooke:** “We had so much trust in Rhonda and believed our daughter would be in the best of care with her. Her being so close to our family and having no remorse for what she did to us is so careless and agonizing. She’s going to go on enjoying herself, to go watch her daughter pursue her dreams, when I don’t even have the chance to do that because she took my daughter away from me.”

Everyone in that courtroom was teary hearing Brooke, and they would be crying more after hearing what Justice had to say.

> **Justice:** “Watching her being carried out on a gurney sheet with a feeling that I will never forget… It was the worst feeling I’ve ever felt in my life. Ariya brought so much joy to my life as a new dad. She made being a dad so easy. Her laughing and giggles would catch my attention every time. I will never be able to walk her down the aisle, buy her first car, take her to school for the first time. I’ll never watch her fall asleep around the yard while I mow and wash cars. She was almost taking her first steps, but I will never get to see or do any of these things with her because they were all robbed from us by one careless person, Rhonda Jewel. To even think Rhonda could be so careless to leave my daughter in a hot car for 5 hours is so heart-wrenching.

She has taken so much trust away from our families to even enjoy Ariya’s little brother on their own time. I never would have thought I would have to be on the lookout to not run into Rhonda Jewel around this town when she was driving around. That thought was she had one daughter in there.

The judge sentenced Rhonda Charmaine Jewel to 17 years in prison. By early 2025, Rhonda Jewel began serving her sentence at the Florida Women’s Reception Center in Ocala.

For the Page family, the marches, the rallies, the sleepless nights, the army they had built from grief, this was some justice finally made.

“I feel like an elephant has been off of our shoulders and we feel relieved, like there’s not something holding us down. Just feel better that she’s not roaming the streets and behind bars where she belongs.”

They did not know that this relief would only last for a brief moment. The ink on the sentence was barely dry when Rhonda’s attorneys filed the appeal. They went back to the same question that had haunted this case from the moment the verdict was read: Can you convict someone of murder without any proof they even knew they were committing a crime?

In February 2025, a judge agreed the question was serious enough and granted Ronda Jewel bond pending appeal. She walked out of prison. She had served less than 2 months.

But for the Page family, that moment was its own kind of cruelty. They had a murder conviction, a 17-year sentence, and now she was free. Walking the same streets, breathing the same air while Ariya never got to breathe at all.

2 years have passed since that unfortunate day on July 19th, 2023, and Brooke Page will tell you plainly, the grief hasn’t faded even a little.

“Definitely still the same pain as it was of July 19th of 2023. 2 years or not, it’s still hard.”

But something else has also grown alongside that grief. After Ariya, the house felt different. The silence felt heavier every day. Brooke and Justice wanted to be parents again.

Brooke posted on her Facebook: “Things have changed, people have changed, we have changed. We’re not the same without you, my girl. I will keep fighting for you every day. I love you beyond words, Ariya. I miss you every day and more. Please bless us with another sibling, Ariya. Please let us be parents again and let us feel love again. Without you, we are not the same.”

And not long after, they got the news they had been praying for. They were expecting a baby boy.

Cason Calvess Page was born in the month of July in 2024, and his mother says he was 7 lbs filled with pure joy and love. He is the reason Brooke and Justice get up every morning.

Brooke has said she wishes more than anything that her baby boy could have met his sister. He never will. And she carries that every day.

And now they have a wind chime at their home in Macclenny that carries her name now. In a quiet sort of way, that says everything. She is still there in the sound of the wind. And that’s how the little boy will grow up knowing he had a sister who was adored. And that is a reminder the family wakes up to every day that Ariya is still with them.

Rhonda Jewel was not a stranger. She was the best friend of Ariya’s own grandmother. She had known this family for years and loved Ariya like her own grandchild.

And still, a 10-month-old girl did not come home. If someone that close, that trusted, that experienced with children—if she could make a mistake this catastrophic, then what does that say about the impossible position every parent is in?

You pick someone you know, someone you love, someone who loves your child back. And sometimes it still isn’t enough.

But here is what makes it even harder to sit with. Not every case like this is a mistake. I have covered cases where a child was harmed on purpose by someone the family trusted completely. One of those cases is Fallon Fridley.

I covered her story in my previous video. The response you all gave to that video was overwhelming. It meant everything. Thank you sincerely for keeping Fallon in your prayers. Click here to watch now if you still haven’t.