Twins Parker and Paisley Sandidge were visiting Florida from Georgia with family when the tragedy unfolded on June 12
Credit: GoFundMe
NEED TO KNOW
- Two 5-year-old girls died in a drowning incident after they were found unresponsive in a Florida vacation home’s swimming pool
- The Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victims as Parker Sandidge and Paisley Sandidge
- A GoFundMe for the twins’ family has so far raised over $20,000 to pay for the children’s funeral and burial costs
Authorities have identified the young twin sisters from Georgia who died in a drowning incident after they were found unresponsive in the swimming pool of a Florida vacation home last week.
In an email to PEOPLE on Tuesday, June 16, the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office stated that the two victims were Parker Sandidge and Paisley Sandidge, both 5.
The medical examiner's office said that the cause of death for Parker and Paisley was drowning, and their manner of death was accidental.
In a previous statement, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said that first responders were summoned to a house in Kissimmee, Fla. — located south of Orlando — just after 11 a.m. local time on Friday, June 12.
Authorities said that the twins were found unresponsive at the bottom of the house's pool. They were airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, and were pronounced dead several hours later.
The two girls and their family were visiting the area from Georgia, the sheriff's office said. The four adults staying at the rental property had left to buy food, and a 15-year-old was at home at the time of the incident, investigators told News 6.
Osceola County sheriff's Capt. Kim Montes told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the teen allegedly “fell back asleep” after the adults left. Another child in the house later woke up and saw that the twins had vanished.
Homicide detectives are currently investigating the incident, which is standard procedure in child death cases, the sheriff's office previously confirmed to PEOPLE.
Britney Mitchell organized a GoFundMe to help Parker and Paisley's family, which has raised over $20,000 as of Tuesday.
“If you knew these girls, you knew they came as a pair,” Mitchell wrote. “They were inseparable, one always following the other, side by side in everything they did. They were playful, loving, and endlessly curious, with infectious smiles that lit up every room they walked into. To know Paisley and Parker was to love them.”
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Mitchell said she has been a friend of the twins' mother for over 20 years.
“No mother should have to bury her children, and no mother should have to face the weight of what comes next alone,” Mitchell wrote.
Donations generated through the GoFundMe will pay for the twins' funeral and burial costs.
PEOPLE contacted Mitchell on Monday, June 15, but did not receive an immediate response.
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