Mother Shares Public Safety Warning After Twin Daughters Die in Airtight Cedar Toy Chest

A grieving mother shared a grave warning after her twin daughters died in an unthinkable tragedy at their family home in 2023.

In a tragic post on social media, Sadie Myers spoke out regarding the potential dangers of a seemingly harmless object in the home. She and her husband, Don Starr, had purchased a large cedar chest to store toys. They did not anticipate the heartbreaking outcome it would bring about.

Sadie explained how she had been at work when her husband put the couple’s children to bed. When Sadie returned, she checked on her little ones herself. She then had dinner and retired for the night.

At some point, Sadie believes her twins, Kellan and Aurora, got up and moved from their bed. They may have decided to play.

“Friday night the weird place they decided to snuggle up and go back to sleep was in their cedar toy chest that we use to store all their stuffed animals.. They pulled out all but a couple stuffed animals, I guess they left some to keep it comfy in there, then they laid inside head to toe with one arm each over their twin and I’m assuming said ‘good night kell kell’ and ‘night night sissy’…” she 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,” she continued.

“Something I did not know and I’m sure many others don’t know is that most wooden toy chests once closed are AIR TIGHT and also sound proof. So as they slept, all snuggled up together, they slowly ran out of oxygen within a couple of hours and passed away. They never even knew it was happening. There was no sudden gasp for air, it was a very slow transition from sleep to passing on.”

When the family awoke on Saturday, they found the twins missing from their beds. Ultimately, it was one of their siblings who discovered them in the toy chest.

“Mommy I found them!” Sadie recalled him saying. “They are so silly just sleeping in the toy box.”

Sadie’s post reads: “I ran in to check and within a few seconds I knew something wasn’t right, but I also quickly realized it was already too late… It makes no sense to me and never will… I hope knowing this helps in some way, and I hope if you have a toy box like this that you destroy it immediately!!!”

Sadie’s husband Don, meanwhile, held off on detailing his heartbreak for a time. He held onto the forlorn hope that it was all a bad dream.

“I guess I was waiting to make sure this isn’t an extremely long, specifically horrific nightmare. But since it’s just getting harder everyday and it seems pretty public now anyhow, here goes: My beautiful family was stricken by tragedy — the loss of our beautiful perfect twins,” he wrote.

“Please send all of the love, strength and good energy you can muster up to Sadie, my beautiful big boys and me — and of course the rest of the family, who have been a rock for us and are more loved and appreciated than I can express,” he added.

“Hug and kiss those kids for me — even the grown-up ones. I love you all.”

Rest in peace, Kellan and Aurora.

The cedar chest had been purchased as a practical storage solution. It held the children’s stuffed animals in one place. The family viewed it as an ordinary piece of household furniture. No one in the home anticipated that the design of the lid could create an airtight seal once fully closed.

Sadie’s work schedule that Friday required her to be away during the evening bedtime routine. Don handled the process of settling the children for the night. Upon her return, Sadie performed her own check of the children. Everything appeared normal at that time. The household then moved through the usual evening pattern of dinner and rest.

At some point after the adults had gone to sleep, Kellan and Aurora left their bed. The twins chose the cedar chest as a place to settle again. They removed most of the stuffed animals to create space. They left a few inside for comfort. They positioned themselves head to toe. Each twin placed an arm over the other. In Sadie’s reconstruction of the moment, they exchanged their familiar good-night phrases before falling asleep once more.

During the night one of the children shifted position. The movement was enough to cause the heavy wooden lid to drop shut. The chest, once closed, formed a tight seal. Air could no longer circulate freely. Sound from inside was muffled. The twins remained asleep as the oxygen level inside the confined space gradually declined. The process unfolded over a period of hours. There was no abrupt struggle. The transition from sleep to death occurred without the children registering what was happening.

Saturday morning brought the discovery that the twins were not in their bed. One of the older siblings searched and located them inside the chest. The child’s initial reaction was that the twins had chosen a playful sleeping place. He called out to his mother with that understanding.

Sadie entered the room and approached the chest. Within moments she recognized that the situation was irreversible. The realization settled over her with devastating clarity. In the days that followed she chose to share the details publicly. Her stated purpose was to alert other families to a hazard that many households might not recognize.

Don delayed his own public statement. He clung for a time to the possibility that the events might somehow prove untrue. When he did speak, he described the loss of the twins in direct terms. He asked for support directed toward Sadie, their sons, and the wider family. He urged others to hold their own children close.

The physical characteristics of older wooden chests often include a lid that settles firmly into place. Many such pieces were manufactured without modern safety hinges that prevent complete closure or that allow automatic lifting. Once the lid is down, the interior can become isolated from room air. Young children who climb inside and fall asleep are vulnerable to the gradual reduction of oxygen.

Sadie’s warning centers on the need to remove or disable any similar chest that can close fully and create an airtight environment. She urged immediate action for any family that owns a comparable piece of furniture. The message is practical and urgent. The goal is to prevent another household from experiencing the same irreversible loss.

The twins, Kellan and Aurora, are remembered by their parents as perfect and deeply loved. The family’s public statements reflect both the depth of their grief and the desire to turn that grief into protective information for others. The older siblings, the extended family, and the parents continue to navigate the aftermath of the tragedy while carrying the memory of the two little girls.

The sequence of ordinary evening actions—bedtime handled by one parent, a later check by the other, the decision of two small children to seek a cozy spot among their toys—unfolded into an outcome no one in the home could have foreseen. The airtight quality of the closed chest converted a familiar piece of furniture into a fatal enclosure.

Public sharing of the details has allowed the warning to reach a wide audience. Parents who encounter the account are prompted to examine storage furniture in their own homes. Any chest or trunk that can close completely and seal against air flow represents a potential risk for young children who might climb inside.

The parents’ words convey the suddenness with which a secure household can be altered forever. They also convey the deliberate choice to speak openly so that the specific mechanism of the tragedy becomes known. Awareness of the airtight and sound-dampening properties of certain wooden chests stands as the central practical message.

Kellan and Aurora remain present in the family’s ongoing life through memory and through the protective purpose their parents have attached to their story. The request for love and strength directed toward Sadie, Don, and the surviving children continues to be part of the public record of the event. The final appeal to hold one’s own children close serves as both a personal expression of loss and a universal reminder of the fragility of ordinary days.