A mother pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated animal cruelty more than a year after her 3-year-old daughter and the family dog were discovered dead inside a car in Maine.
Kelly Sanders Brown, 41, pleaded guilty on Monday to manslaughter of a family or household member and aggravated animal cruelty in connection with the August 2025 deaths of her daughter, Fiona, and the family’s 13-year-old dog, Penelope, according to several news outlets.
According to a plea agreement, Brown faces 20 to 25 years in prison for manslaughter. She would also receive a five-year term for aggravated animal cruelty, which would be served simultaneously with the manslaughter sentence.
A judge must still approve the arrangement at the sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for November.
The investigation began on August 9, 2025, when officials responded to a shop in Milford and discovered Fiona dead inside Brown’s truck. Brown was apprehended and detained.
Investigators discovered that Brown had left Fiona and Penelope inside the locked vehicle for several hours. According to Boston.com and PEOPLE, the toddler was located on the driver’s seat, while Penelope was discovered on the floor close.
At around 2 a.m., surveillance video saw Brown exiting the driver’s side of her Nissan Murano. Nearly four hours later, she was spotted leaving the vehicle and walked away from the camera’s view. According to investigators, the SUV stayed in the same place throughout that time.
Brown told detectives that she and Fiona had been travelling from Pennsylvania to Maine for an annual family vacation and had stopped along the way to pick up rubbish.
According to the criminal complaint, Brown stated that she left her kid and dog in the vehicle while she went to dispose of a bag of trash. She claimed she fell into the Penobscot River and tried to remain afloat.
According to investigators, security video contradicted certain aspects of that account. They also saw that Brown’s clothing was not damp when she was interviewed.
The Maine State Police stated at the time that Brown and her daughter had already been the target of an attempt to find and check on their well-being after worried family members called officials.
Brown was arrested hours after her daughter’s body was found.
The medical examiner first stated that hyperthermia, or raised body temperature, was consistent with Fiona’s symptoms and was the most likely cause of death, pending further testing. Court records eventually revealed that her probable cause of death was due to spending several hours inside the vehicle and heat exposure.
Investigators claimed Brown acted irresponsibly by leaving her daughter in the vehicle, knowingly disregarding the risk of damage or death.
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