Baby dies after parents leave her in hot car after party
US, July 8: A 18-month-old baby girl died after her parents left her in a hot car overnight following a Fourth of July party in the United States. The couple have been charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death of their daughter.
The child was reportedly left alone in the car from around 3 am until around 11 am when the heat index was 105 degrees.
According to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd's statement, parents Joel and Jazmine Rondon went to a Fourth of July celebration with their three children, all under the age of nine, and stayed until nearly 3 a.m. the next morning.
Jazmine entered the house with the older children and told her husband to bring their daughter inside. Joel stated that at the moment, one of the car doors was open. He took food trays inside the house, but when he returned outside, he noticed that all four doors of their car were closed and believed his wife had already brought the kid inside.
"He went inside and laid down in bed with his wife. Neither husband nor wife asked each other if they had brought the victim inside. They went to sleep," the sheriff's office news release said.
The next morning, at 11 a.m., while Joel was getting ready for work, he asked one of the children to go "check on the baby" in the bedroom, but the child informed Joel that the baby was not there. At that point, the father began searching for the 18-month-old and then walked outside to search in the car, which was parked in the driveway "in full sun." He discovered the infant "still strapped in her car seat and unresponsive".
The couple immediately rushed the infant to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to CNN.
The heat index that day was 105 degrees, according to authorities. They went on to say that the child's internal body temperature was more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit. An autopsy also revealed that the kid died as a result of hyperthermia "due to being left in a car".
Following the incident, the couple was subjected to a drug test. Jazmine tested positive for marijuana and alcohol, while Joel tested positive for meth, marijuana and alcohol.
The couple has now been charged with child-aggravated manslaughter. They were arrested and put into the Polk County Jail on Thursday. Other children of the couple, on the other hand, have been put with relatives.
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- With inputs from agencies
