18-year-old who left friend's toddlers to die in hot car for 15 hours claims he wasn't aware they were inside
An 18-year-old Texas man is facing two first-degree murder counts for his alleged role in the deaths of two toddler girls in a hot car incident last year.
According to reports, Kevin Franke was indicted on July 23, 2018 with regards to the death of Addyson Overgard-Eddy, 2, and Brynn Hawkins, 1, who were allegedly left in the car for 15 hours when the temperature outside reached around 80 degrees.
The girls' mother, Amanda Hawkins, allegedly left them in their car seats at around 9 pm on June 6, 2017, while she was throwing a party at her home. Amanda was earlier indicted last year to two counts of injury to a child and two counts of child endangerment in the case.
In April 2018, Kevin was also named as a suspect in the deaths, and charged with two counts of manslaughter, injury to a child and child endangerment. At that time, he entered a not guilty plea to the charges.
Addyson and Brynn died on June 7, 2017, after they allegedly spent part of the previous night in the car outside their house, reported People. Court documents obtained by the magazine suggest that Amanda has also pleaded not guilty to two counts of injury to a child and two counts of child endangerment.
Kevin was at Amanda's house for the party, and at some point in the night went to sleep in the car where the children were. Authorities suggest that at one point some of the guests heard the toddlers crying in the car and asked Amanda if she wanted to bring the children into the house. “She [Hawkins] said, ‘No, it’s fine. They’ll cry themselves to sleep,’ ” Texas, Sheriff W R “Rusty” Hierholzer alleged.
The children were pulled from their vehicle the next day at around 12 pm. They were found to be unconscious. The court documents of Amanda state that she spent the entire night inside her house with her friends and socializing with others who were present. As reported by Crime Online, Amanda decided against getting medical help as she feared to get into trouble with the police.
When her children did not respond well the following day, Amanda took the decision of taking them to a local hospital at the insistence of a friend. At first, Amanda claimed that the girls were enjoying their day at the park when they fainted because of outdoor heat. Eventually, the authorities realized that she was telling a lie. The medical examiners believe that if her daughters were brought to a hospital before, they were chances they could have been saved.
Meanwhile, Kevin and Amanda had no relation. In the court documents, Kevin alleges that he decided to sleep in the car as he could not find a place inside the house. He further claimed that he did not know the girls were inside the car and neither did they make any sound. The indictment alleges that Kevin rolled up the SUV’s windows and shut the engine off when he exited the vehicle at 8 am on June 7. Both, Amanda and Kevin are accused of not taking the girls to the emergency room. The pair remains in police custody without bail.
