Two teenage and preteen relatives found the boys in the bathtub before police arrived, say prosecutors.
RICHMOND, Va. — Two young relatives who prosecutors say found twin toddlers struggling in a bathtub are now part of the timeline in a Richmond murder case against the boys’ mother.
Amaya Dixon, 21, has been charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of child neglect after her sons, Ksyn and Kcye Dixon, died from drowning injuries. The case began with a 911 call from an apartment on German School Road and has grown into a prosecution shaped by family witnesses, disputed timing, medical vulnerability and a judge’s decision to let Dixon await trial outside jail.
Richmond police said officers were called to the 1000 block of German School Road at about 8:39 p.m. on Friday, April 17, after a report that two young children were injured. When officers arrived, they found two 17-month-old boys with apparent drowning injuries while in a bathtub. Emergency medical workers took both children to a local hospital. One child was pronounced dead there. The other child survived the night but later died from his injuries, turning a single emergency call into a double fatality investigation.
The relatives’ role became public during Dixon’s bond hearing in Richmond Circuit Court. Richmond Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Joan Burroughs said Dixon’s 12-year-old brother discovered the twins struggling in the bathwater. Burroughs said Dixon’s 17-year-old brother helped the boys while the younger sibling called 911. That account placed the children’s rescue attempt in the hands of two relatives who were not adults, while prosecutors alleged Dixon had left the twins alone and had not told anyone she was leaving them.
Burroughs also described what Dixon told police. The prosecutor said Dixon reported leaving the boys in the bathtub for about four minutes to get milk. Burroughs told the court that apartment camera footage showed Dixon was gone for about 15 minutes and returned when her mother called her. The gap between the statement and the footage is expected to be one of the state’s central claims. Police have not released the footage, and the defense has not had a public trial setting in which to challenge the evidence.
The boys’ physical condition also entered the court record. Burroughs said Ksyn and Kcye were developmentally delayed and could not support their own heads. That statement gave prosecutors a way to frame the bathtub not as a routine household setting but as a place where the twins’ limits mattered. It also raised questions that officials have not fully answered in public, including how the boys were positioned, how deep the water was and how long each child may have been in distress before relatives found them.
Dixon’s attorney, William Smith, countered the prosecution by pointing to Dixon’s background and ties to the community. Smith said Dixon had never been convicted of a crime, graduated from Armstrong High School and had strong family connections on the Southside. He told the court Dixon was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. Smith described the deaths as “obviously unintentional,” a phrase that put the defense at odds with the murder charges returned by the grand jury.
Judge Charles Maxfield granted Dixon bond Tuesday morning. The judge set the total at $20,000, with $5,000 attached to each of the four counts. He also ordered that Dixon cannot serve as a caretaker for minors while the case remains open. Dixon sobbed in court and said, “Thank you, God,” after the ruling. The bond order gave Dixon a path out of jail but did not reduce the charges or resolve the facts that prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to contest.
Outside the John Marshall Courthouse, the boys’ grandmother defended Dixon and spoke about the family’s grief. “We are thanking God that she can mourn with her family and mourn over her kids because she wasn’t able to be there for the process of burial of her kids,” the grandmother said. She also said the claims against Dixon were accusations and described her as loving and caring. “We loved those children unconditionally,” she said. “We will forever hold them in our hearts.”
The criminal case took its formal shape on May 7, when Richmond police announced Dixon’s arrest after indictments from a grand jury. The police advisory said Dixon, of Richmond, had been charged in connection with the deaths of her 17-month-old twins and that a booking photo was not available at that time. The department said the investigation was being handled by Major Crimes detectives. Police asked anyone with information to contact Detective J. Pittman or Crime Stoppers.
Dixon also faces unrelated charges in Chesterfield County from December 2025. Prosecutors mentioned those matters during the bond hearing, saying they include allegations tied to larceny from a vulnerable adult and other financial charges. Other reports citing court records have listed the pending allegations as including credit card theft, credit card fraud, grand larceny and financial exploitation. Those cases are separate from the Richmond homicide prosecution, and Smith said Dixon has no convictions.
The Richmond case now stands between a family’s public defense of Dixon and prosecutors’ claim that the twins were left alone too long to survive. No trial date has been reported in Richmond Circuit Court, and Dixon is expected in Chesterfield court in August on the separate fraud allegations.
Author note: Last updated May 28, 2026.