JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A high speed chase ended tragically on Thursday as police say 32-year-old Pamela Cabrera was being pursued after an alleged kidnapping.
Cabrera took police through North Jacksonville near Dunn Avenue and onto 95 near Durbin Creek and 9B. She crashed her vehicle into a retention pond and police got her out of the pond and arrested her. Cabrera's 5-year-old daughter, Vanity, died.
First Coast News spoke with Cabrera's cousin by phone.
Solange Slaquer says her cousin, Pamela, was Schizophrenic and dealt with mental health issues for quite some time.
"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," said Slaquer.
Solange also said Pamela didn't have custody of Vanity for the last two years. Pamela was pregnant and Solange says she stopped taking her medication.
"In 2020 they gave me Vanity. I had her for a whole month because they took Vanity away from her because she was having mental health problems," explained Slaquer.
Her health continued to go up and down.
"Even when she was admitted to a mental health hospital and she was taking medications, everything got worse now when she got pregnant again and she wasn’t taking the medication," said Slaquer.
Slaquer says she hopes the public will hold their judgment and pray for her family instead.
"They can pray for us," she said.