Trigger warning: Sensitive content
Three videos circulating on Facebook (FB) supposedly show the execution of a mother whose 16-month-old daughter died after being left alone for 11 days. This is erroneous.
Versions of the video, posted on May 10, 12, and 13, bore this incorrect caption:
“Ang ina Na nag iwan Ng anak SA loob Ng 11 days nahatulan na Ng BItay panoorin ito (A mother who left her child for 11 days now sentenced to death, watch this)
Shown in the video is not Kristel Candelario, who was sentenced in Ohio in the midwestern region of the United States for abandoning her child.
The video instead shows Valentina Gloria, a person with severe mental illness at the time. She was being restrained in bed as part of an involuntary treatment at a county jail in Phoenix, Arizona. It was shot on December 25, 2018.
The claim in the erroneous caption refers to Candelario, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, not the death penalty, in Ohio last March 19. She was charged with aggravated assault and child endangerment after her 16-month-old daughter Jailyn died at home while she took a 10-day vacation with her ex-boyfriend.
In a version posted by FB page Viral Update, a photo of a healthy and an emaciated baby are seen on the video’s right side – supposedly showing a before-and-after comparison of what Jailyn looked like. These are not photos of Jailyn.
Reverse image search results show these are photos of a Palestinian child, Anhar Saqr Al-Shanbari, who died of starvation due to Israel’s blockade of northern Gaza. A colored version of the photo first appeared on Feb. 26, 2024.
To find the original video, VERA Files Fact Check conducted reverse image searches of certain frames within the clip.
A cursory search of the phrase “isang ina iniwan ang anak sa Loob ng 11 days (a mother left her child for 11 days)” provided clues to other versions posted on FB.
The misleading videos garnered a total of 90,672 interactions. Several netizens in the comments section pointed out that the video actually refers to the wrong person.
“Sana po bago kayo mag post inalam nyo muna ang totoo fake news naman kayo… hindi naman yan yung Nanay yan yung babae iba naman kaso nyan (You should’ve known the truth before posting, you’re spreading fake news… that’s not the mother, that woman has a different case), a netizen said.
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(Editor's Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)