Emilie Kiser, a popular TikTok content creator, was five months postpartum when she went out for dinner with friends for a girls' night.
Her husband, Brady Kiser, was home with their two children: their newborn, Theodore and their three-year-old son, Trigg.
About 10 minutes after arriving at the restaurant, Emilie got a call from her husband — one that turned her entire world upside down.
As soon as she answered the phone, her stomach dropped.
"I could hear the pain and just confusion in his voice," Emilie said on Jay Shetty's podcast On Purpose.
"I knew immediately, before he even said anything, that something was wrong."
It was Trigg. Brady told her he'd fallen in the backyard pool and that he wasn't breathing.
"I rushed to the hospital to be by my son's side, and our life just completely changed that day," she said in her first interview since the incident.
"He passed away about a week later and our whole world fell apart."
Brady told police he had been tending to the couple's newborn on May 12, 2025 and had lost sight of Trigg for about three to five minutes, believing his son had gone inside, before he found Trigg unresponsive in the water at the family's home in Chandler, Arizona, according to People.
He said he immediately called emergency services and performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
Trigg was first taken to Chandler Regional Medical Centre and later transferred to Phoenix Children's Hospital, where he died after six days in intensive care, People reported.
One year on, Emilie is finally ready to talk about that period.
Appearing on On Purpose, she said her body went into "fight or flight mode" immediately after the incident.
"I feel like I've just been truly taking it minute by minute, hour by hour and slowly increasing it from there," Emilie said.
"The only thing that was going through my mind was that I wanted [Trigg] to be okay and that I wanted my old life back, that I wanted him to have his life back. I mean, it's what he deserves.
"You can't even describe that feeling of when your child passes away from a preventable accident, a preventable tragedy. All that's going through your mind is, 'Where did I go wrong? Where did we go wrong? How did this happen? Why did this happen?'"
Following the incident, investigators determined Trigg had been unsupervised in the backyard for nine minutes. He was in the water for seven minutes before Brady discovered him and commenced CPR, a police report obtained by Arizona Republic showed.
Chandler Police ruled the death an accidental drowning, according to Rolling Stone. But on July 15, the department recommended charging Brady with a Class 4 felony for child abuse, based on allegations of negligence.
The case was then passed to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which determined not to proceed with prosecution as there was "no reasonable likelihood of conviction".
An attorney for Brady said he was "grateful to law enforcement and the county attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and confirming that this was a tragic accident."
"Brady remains in the midst of the grieving process and is thankful to be with his family as they heal together. We appreciate the compassion and support shown during this difficult time," he said, per Today.
'It could have been me.'
Since then, Emilie has navigated her grief alongside Brady, their younger son and the rest of the family.
One question has followed her ever since. Some of Emilie's followers have questioned her ability to "forgive" her husband after Trigg died while in his care.
She addressed it in the comments of a TikTok earlier this year, writing, "You don't heal from the loss, you learn to live with the grief," she wrote, adding it also took "lots of therapy" and "the realisation that everyone deserves loves, empathy and forgiveness".
She concluded: "And not giving a crap about other people's opinions, which therapy helps with."
Last December, she answered a similar question in the comment section of another one of her videos.
"How does your family deal with your husband? Are they polite? Are they angry? What are their feelings? They probably don't even show their feelings," the user wrote.
Emilie replied, sharing that her "entire family loves him so so much".
"If anything, their unwavering love for him and Trigg, is something that has helped us so much to come together as a family," she added.
Speaking to Shetty, Emilie admitted she "felt so angry at him" in the beginning of her grief and considered the possibility that her marriage could end. But soon realised it could have easily been the other way around.
"This could have just as easily been me in Brady's position. Brady was taking care of our newborn child. When I left for dinner that night, he was de-thawing my breast milk, trying to get Teddy settled," she said.
"That doesn't excuse anything. It doesn't excuse what happened. It doesn't excuse any of the series of events after that.
"But taking accountability, along with all the other things I know I could have changed, gave me so much true, deep, real, raw empathy for him, of, 'This could have been me'… I would so deeply want him to forgive me and to know that I didn't mean for it to happen."
'We miss him every second of every day.'
Following Trigg's death, Emilie took an extended break from social media. She's made a slow return to regular posting since then, sharing her first post following his death last August — an emotional statement on the loss of her little boy.
"Trigg is our baby and our best friend," she wrote.
"The light and spirit he brought into this world was bright, pure, joyful and undeniable. We miss him every second of every day and continuing forward often feels unbearable.
"I never thought we would experience grief in this way or the pain of losing him so suddenly. It's a pain, heartache and void that no family should ever have to endure."
Her choice to return to her social media job came from a desire to return to some form of "normalcy", she told Shetty.
"Nothing could have prepared me for the support that I received," she said.
"Sometimes I feel undeserving of how we are able to still, in the best way we can, go on with our lives and I'm just really grateful that I had so many people that were just there for me."
'We should have protected him better.'
On her return to social media, Emilie said she took full accountability as Trigg's mother and admitted she believes she should have done more to protect him. She hopes other families can avoid the same pain.
"One of the hardest lessons I carry is that a permanent pool fence could have saved his life, and it's something I will never overlook again," she said.
"I hope amidst this pain, Trigg's story will help prevent other children and families from suffering the same loss."
Speaking to Shetty, Emilie echoed this sentiment.
"At the end of the day, it happened because there were precautions that we didn't take," she said.
"I'm a very logical person and I go based off the facts and that's what I had to do the entire time that we were in the hospital, getting information, everything.
"And there's no answer for why he's not here that's some bigger thing, or a lesson. There's nothing. It's we should have protected him better and that's why it happened."
Moving forward.
The headlines, the investigations, the police reports have all settled now. What's left is the fact that a young boy is no longer here and a family is grieving an unimaginable loss.
"There is no way to describe to someone what it's like losing a child and what that pain is like and it feels unbearable," Emilie said.
"We did not think we would make it through that."
As she faces that grief, Emilie said she has a "choice to make".
"I can either let this completely derail me more than it already has, and not really feel like I'm fit or able to take care of my younger son, or I can do everything in my power to be the best mum I possibly can for him and give him the same love that Trigg had and has," she told Shetty.
Feature image: Instagram/emiliekiser.
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If you or anyone you know needs to speak with an expert, please contact your GP or in Australia, contact Lifeline (13 11 14), Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) or Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636), all of which provide trained counsellors you can talk with 24/7.
Nicole Madigan
Senior Writer
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