Babysitter Charged in 6-Year-Old’s Drowning 

Fifty-six-year-old Jennifer Fitzgibbon has been charged in connection with the death of six-year-old King Shakel Wade, who drowned in a canal near Supal Street, Belize City, in October 2024. Fitzgibbon faces two charges: Abandonment of a child and Manslaughter by Negligence.

Wade fell into the canal around 3 p.m. while under Fitzgibbon’s supervision. He remained submerged for more than three hours before being recovered by residents and Coast Guard personnel. Efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

“I start holler for ah. We noh hear ah, so I come back here ya, and when she come back here, my lee grandson tell her, he say, King there in the kinnel,” Fitzgibbon told News 5 in October. “When I hear her bawl out, I see the two slippers in the canal, and that is when they start to search… I can’t even explain it. I am telling you. It hurts.”

Wade had reportedly been left outside while Fitzgibbon prepared to take another child home. His disappearance went unnoticed until his older sister arrived and began asking about him.

Fitzgibbon had been babysitting Wade for approximately five months.