A five-year-old girl has tragically drowned after her mum kidnapped her and drove her into a pond locked in a car.
Pamela Tereza Cabrera, 32, was chased by police for 30 miles with daughter Vanity in her car in North Jacksonville, Florida, on Thursday night.
At times the vehicles reached 90mph with the high-speed pursuit culminating in Cabrera crashing into the pond.
Cops managed to pull the mum from the water but were unable to find Vanity. A dive team eventually found the child dead at the bottom of the pond.
Cabrera, who was supposedly armed with a knife, has now been arrested on several counts of battery, vehicular homicide and fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement.
The incident started when police were alerted to a kidnapping in progress. Cabrera fled when officers approached her vehicle at a traffic light.
The mum suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and actually lost custody of her daughter in 2020.
She is now undergoing a mental health evaluation in Jacksonville Jail with her arraignment set for April 21.
Solange Slaquer, Cabrera's cousin and Vanity's guardian, said that the mum had been struggling.
She told First Coast News: "Pamela wasn't a bad person. She just needs help and she didn't get the help she needed from the government. She wasn't a bad person.
"We tried to look for help plenty times and we called police plenty times to help her, we took her to psychologist and Pamela just needed help."
Slaquer added that the situation had worsened as of late as Cabrera had fallen pregnant and stopped taking her medication.
According to an affidavit seen by First Coast News, she was "normal and functioning" with her medication, however without it she would lose track of time and not sleep.
Maria Ortiz, Cabrera's mum, added that the 32-year-old was "lost" without her daughter, explaining that she was in the process of obtaining power of attorney over Cabrera for when she was "not in the right state of mind".
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