Video shows Oklahoma siblings, 3 and 4, got into hot car on their own before death, dad released from custody
Update: Dustin Lee Dennis, 31, who was arrested on June 13, on charges of second-degree murder after his two children were found dead in his car, has now been released from jail. KJRH reports the DA office came to this decision upon reviewing a surveillance video from a neighbor's home which showed the two children, aged 3 and 4, get into the car on their own but they unfortunately never managed to come out.
The Tulsa DA issued this statement on June 15, Monday: "Today Investigators with the Tulsa Police Department brought to the attention of the District Attorney’s Office additional information they were able to develop in the matter of the deaths of Tegan and Ryan Dennis. Detectives within the Child Crisis Unit were concerned about conflicting information as it related to the initially reported facts. Video surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home confirmed that the children managed to get into the truck and tragically never got out. Based upon that newly discovered evidence the detectives immediately reported it to our office. We then presented that information to the judge who initially set bond. Mr. Dennis was authorized for release on a personal recognizance bond."
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TULSA, OKLAHOMA: Two young siblings died while they were in their father's care after he left them locked up in a truck for five hours on Saturday, June 13.
The temperature had been around 90 degrees. The bodies of 4-year-old Teagan and her younger brother 3-year-old Ryan Dennis were found in the footwell of their father's truck in Tulsa, Oklahoma. An arrest report revealed that the children's father, Dustin Lee Dennis was arrested on Saturday, June 13.
He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder after his children had been pronounced dead at his home. Dennis, 31, had told the authorities that he had driven to QuikTrip along with his children and then returned home before falling asleep for four to five hours. When he woke up he was unable to find his children, after searching he located them in the floorboard of the truck and shifted them to the living room where the paramedics declared the children dead.
His children's death comes two days after he posted on Facebook, how he couldn't imagine a life without them. He had posted on Thursday, June 11, saying: "2 in the morning up watching my kids sleep, I can’t believe they’re mine, I love them so much and nobody in this world could ever make me feel as loved as they do. The other day I was so depressed because I just missed them, and I got to thinking of when they get older and become adults. If you don’t have kids you may not understand this but that is the scariest but most amazing thing to think of, watching them become their own person and seeing what they will experience and achieve. I hope our bond only grows stronger, I hope they always want to call me or see me just to talk or ask for advice. I can’t imagine this world without them."
The cause of death of the two children is yet to be determined. The police shared that a neighbor had footage of Dennis leaving, locking his truck, heading inside the house without letting the kids get out of the car. As per the arrest report, "The children had not been checked on for nearly five hours during the time they were locked inside the vehicle." National Weather Service said that Saturday's temperature had touched the low 90s.
Kidsandcars.org revealed that a child can start to experience life-threatening symptoms of heatstroke within minutes of being trapped in a hot car. The father, Dennis is being held in the Tulsa County Jail on a $1 million bond, which has now been reduced to a $750,000 bond.
We had earlier reported a similar case where a 1-year-old child was found dead in the backseat of a car after his mother had left him in it for several hours. 42-year-old Dawn Aberson-Vanden Broecke left the child in his safety seat in the back of her vehicle before reporting to her job on August 29 last year.
She was supposed to drop him off at daycare on her way to work, People reports. Dawn had finished work at around 5 pm and then returned to her vehicle to go and pick the boy up from daycare but then realized that she had left him in the car. Broecke turned herself in for booking at the Mecklenburg County jail on September 3.