'It was gut-wrenching': Harrowing video shows mom collapsing and SCREAMING after finding daughter, 2, dead in hot car
FRANKLIN, NEW JERSEY: A distressing footage captured the moment a New Jersey mom collapsed to the ground after learning her daughter, 2, had died after being left in the family’s car for several hours in 90-degree temperature. The unidentified woman was filmed by a WABC news chopper as she collapsed on the ground outside her Franklin Township home earlier this week. Her neighbor said she heard her “screaming in pain and anguish.”
A local cop is seen bending down to comfort the mom as they rocked side to side, tightly embracing. Neighbors told NBC New York that the devastated mother had to be taken away in an ambulance. The baby's parents were reportedly unaware that the girl had been left in the hot car. They learned of the tragedy only after cops knocked on their door.
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“They were just screaming in pain and anguish,” neighbor Treana Huntley recalled. “I heard the dad screaming uncontrollably and then I heard the mom start wailing, really sobbing. She added, "It was gut-wrenching … Just hearing that pain from another mother. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”
Officials said the baby was found in a car seat in the back of the gray Honda Civic just after 2.20 pm on that day. A neighbor, who was a local firefighter, attempted CPR, but the toddler was pronounced dead at the scene. In a Facebook post, Somerset County Prosecutor's Office wrote, "Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald, Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Chief of County Detectives John W. Fodor, and Franklin Township Public Safety Director Quovella M. Maeweather announced an investigation into the death of a 2-year-old female child on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 30, 2022, on Summerall Road, Franklin Township, New Jersey. Prosecutor McDonald stated that on August 30, 2022, at approximately 2:21 p.m., Franklin Township Police responded to a call via Fire radio of a child in cardiac arrest at a residence on Summerall Road in Franklin Township. Upon arrival, responding officers observed a neighbor who is a member of a local Fire Department administering CPR on the unresponsive child. Officers assisted in life saving measures until multiple Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital ALS and BLS medical units arrived on scene and took over the life saving measures of the child. The child was subsequently pronounced deceased at the scene."
The post added, "Detectives from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit, Crime Scene Investigation Unit and the Franklin Township Police Department responded to investigate. The New Jersey Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Officer also responded to conduct an investigation. Authorities have stated that results of the preliminary investigation have determined that the 2-year-old child had been left unattended in a vehicle. Further investigation is ongoing to determine the exact length of time the child was in the vehicle, and the circumstances surrounding the events leading to this incident. An autopsy is scheduled to be performed by the New Jersey Northern Regional Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the cause and manner of death."
Anyone with information relating to the incident have been urged to contact the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit at (908) 231-7100 or the Franklin Township Police Department at (732) 873-5533 or via the STOPit app.