Two-year-old dies in hot car after mother takes midday nap, calls police to report her missing
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: A toddler in San Diego reportedly died after being locked in a hot car in the driveway while her mother took a midday nap, according to reports. The mom called the police at 12:42 pm on Monday to say that she had woken up from a nap and could not find her daughter.
She then called the police again, saying that while she was searching for her, she found her inside the car parked on the driveway of her house in San Diego, in California.
It is not yet clear how long the two-year-old had been inside the hot car, however, when the authorities arrived they pronounced her dead on the scene at 1pm, according to NBC San Diego.
Police have now launched an investigation into the case led by the San Diego Police Department Child Abuse Unit. Reports state that investigators are particularly focusing on the car in this case.
One of the family's neighbor, while talking to the outlet, said: "This is tough. It hits home. It could happen to any of us. I'm a mother, we go through a lot being military spouses, you know, with our significant others, just in life in general and this is just so unfortunate."
The neighborhood is made up of housing used by military spouses, according to reports.
Authorities have not revealed the details of the case, including whether the mother left the child in the car or if the child got inside the car by herself.
Earlier this month, a grandmother, Alanna Jean Orr, in Oklahoma pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after she left Maddox Ryan Durbin to die in a hot car. The grandmother reportedly spent six hours inside the Kickapoo Casino in Harrah, Oklahoma, in June 2018, leaving the child in the hot car.
In a similar case last month in July, Iraq war vet Juan Rodriguez left his twin babies in a hot car for eight hours in New York as temperatures rose to 30C.
Both the babies were pronounced dead. In another instance last month, a toddler was rescued from a hot car in Essex after the child was left alone for an hour in the sweltering heat.