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The Maricopa County, Arizona attorney’s office announced on June 25 that they will not be filing charges in connection with the drowning death of popular momfluencer Emilie Kiser’s three-year-old son. Arizona police had previously recommended a felony criminal charge. In a press release, the attorney’s office said they declined to prosecute because “there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction.”
On May 18, Trigg Kiser, son of the social media star, died at an Arizona hospital following a drowning incident that occurred six days earlier. The drowning, which happened on May 12, took place at the Kiser family home in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. Trigg Kiser was often featured in Emilie’s videos on TikTok, where she had 4 million followers at the time of Trigg’s death.
Following Trigg’s death, Emilie filed a lawsuit to keep the details of the drowning incident private. However, on July 15, the Chandler Police Department in Arizona filed a recommendation of a felony child abuse charge against Brady Kiser, Emilie’s husband and Trigg’s father. Details of the alleged child abuse have not been publicly revealed due to the ongoing lawsuit. A rep for the Kiser family did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
The case was submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for review, the Arizona Republic reports, after which prosecutors had the ability to decide whether to formally charge Brady Kiser, send the case back to police for further investigation, or drop the case entirely; the Arizona Republic notes that police were considering child abuse charges against Brady for an incident that occurred before Trigg’s death, based on search warrant applications from May.
Brady Kiser was home watching both Trigg and the Kisers’ newborn son, Theodore, when the drowning incident occurred. Brady told investigators that he was with the newborn when he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes, at which point he said he found Trigg floating in the family’s backyard pool. Paramedics arrived on the scene and transported Trigg to an area hospital, where he died on May 18.
Emilie Kiser has not spoken publicly since the drowning incident on her popular social media channel, with her lone statements arriving via her counsel in their lawsuit to block details related to Trigg’s death from being released to the public, which in part was granted by an Arizona judge.
“Emilie is going through a parent’s worst nightmare right now,” read the lawsuit. “Emilie and her family desperately want to grieve in private but sadly, the public will not let them. Trigg’s death has become a media frenzy.” Emilie is “trying her best to be there for her surviving two-month-old son, Theodore”, the lawsuit says, but “every day is a battle.”
The records include 911 calls, the autopsy report, photos of the scene, the police report, “graphic security camera footage of the accidental drowning,” autopsy photos, and a death certificate, according to the lawsuit. The records have not been made available to Emilie or her counsel, the lawsuit says. “Nor does Emilie wish to ever view them.”
Update, July 28: This story was updated to include the county prosecutor’s decision not to prosecute.
