Civil Plaintiff
Georgia Officials Reach a $3 Million Settlement in the Deaths of 3-Year-Old Twins
When 3-year-old twins Raelynn and Payton Keyes wandered off and died after getting trapped in a scorching-hot car, investigators in South Georgia blamed their foster mother, charging her and her boyfriend with second-degree murder and cruelty to children.
But a lawsuit filed last year blamed their 2019 deaths on the state for missing or ignoring warning signs that, if acted on, could have saved the twins.
Last August, Georgia officials settled the suit, agreeing to pay $3 million to the girls’ family, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned. The settlement was one of the largest of its kind paid out by the state and stands as a record of failure by the agency charged with protecting roughly 11,900 foster children across Georgia.
