A case involving a Florida grandmother and the deaths of two of her grandchildren, less than a year apart, is circulating widely on social media again. Here is what is actually documented about it.
Tracey Nix, 65, a former principal at North Wauchula Elementary School in Hardee County, Florida, was sentenced on April 3, 2025 to five years in prison over the 2022 death of her 7-month-old granddaughter, Uriel Schock. Uriel was the second of Nix's grandchildren to die while in her care.
The first death: Ezra, December 2021
In December 2021, Nix's 16-month-old grandson, Ezra Schock, wandered away from her Wauchula home while she was asleep and drowned in a nearby pond, according to NBC News and NewsNation. Police sought a child neglect charge against Nix, but the State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence of culpable negligence under Florida law. No charges were ever filed in Ezra's death, and the incident was later ruled inadmissible in the trial over Uriel's death.
The second death: Uriel, November 2022
Less than a year later, on November 1, 2022, Nix left her 7-month-old granddaughter, Uriel Schock, unattended in a vehicle for several hours as temperatures reached the 90s, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. Uriel died of hyperthermia. Nix, the mother of the children's mother, Kaila Schock, was arrested and charged in November 2022.
Convicted of one charge, acquitted of another
A jury convicted Nix in January 2025 of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle causing great bodily harm -- but acquitted her of aggravated manslaughter, the more serious charge prosecutors had also pursued. The distinction matters: the jury found her criminally responsible for the specific act of leaving Uriel in the car, but not for manslaughter.
On April 3, 2025, the judge imposed the maximum sentence available for her conviction: five years in prison. "I am not putting people on probation to be walking around this community to rehash an issue," the judge said, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay, citing a lack of remorse. Nix was later transferred into the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.
What remains unresolved
No charges were ever filed over Ezra's 2021 death, and that incident played no role in Nix's conviction -- the trial and sentence described here relate only to Uriel's death in 2022. Nix's exact account of what happened in the hours before Uriel died has not been independently verified beyond court documents and reporting cited here.
