Dad leaves toddler to die in hot car while he plays games on Play Station

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to leave my kids a lot in the car when they were sleeping.

But, never when it was hot. I just rolled down the windows and sat beside the car, reading in a lawn chair.

Yea many of us have been there. Not moving a sleeping kid if I can keep them there safely. But having done it many times is why it’s unimaginable to me to go inside, make myself comfortable in front of the TV, and ignore my kid for three hours. Absolutely awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to leave my kids a lot in the car when they were sleeping.

But, never when it was hot. I just rolled down the windows and sat beside the car, reading in a lawn chair.

Yea many of us have been there. Not moving a sleeping kid if I can keep them there safely. But having done it many times is why it’s unimaginable to me to go inside, make myself comfortable in front of the TV, and ignore my kid for three hours. Absolutely awful.

I never did this though I was tempted to on several occasions with my difficult sleeper. The WaPo article scared me to the point of paranoia when my child was born. DH and I would check in with each other every time we had to put the kid in the car seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to leave my kids a lot in the car when they were sleeping.

But, never when it was hot. I just rolled down the windows and sat beside the car, reading in a lawn chair.

Yea many of us have been there. Not moving a sleeping kid if I can keep them there safely. But having done it many times is why it’s unimaginable to me to go inside, make myself comfortable in front of the TV, and ignore my kid for three hours. Absolutely awful.

Yes it's the leaving her alone and then forgetting about her that is unconscionable. Every parent knows the challenge of a kid that age falling asleep in the car and having to debate moving (and likely waking) with letting them sleep. When mine was in half day preschool this was a daily struggle because they'd eat lunch at school and then I'd pick up at 12:30 and trying to get her home before she passed out on a hot day was impossible. Eventually I gave up and would walk the 1.5 miles to get her with the stroller and then when she fell asleep on the way home I could roll her right into the house and let her nap in the stroller near where I was.

I also recall that sometimes she'd fall asleep in the car on the weekend when we were out as a family and we had a specific very shady park we'd go to when this happened -- we'd park in the shade with the windows down and then DH and I would sit in the park a few feet away so that we could see and hear her if she woke up but we could have a conversation and eat some takeout as well.

There are lots of solutions to this problem that don't involve leaving your child locked in a car outside of your sight and hearing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think that initially he decided to leave her in the car because she was sleeping, and then when he got inside that is when he forgot about her.

I think if he had continued to remember that she was napping, he would have gone out to check on her at least once in the 3 hours.

Maybe she isn’t home normally in the afternoons and so when he got home he started on his afternoon routine and went on autopilot at that point.

I’m surprised the 9 year old didn’t notice something was wrong and ask about her sister, though. I feel like usually oldest daughters in these situations are halfway raising their younger siblings, and at age 9 she would have realized her sister couldn’t be left in the car. Not at all saying she’s in any way responsible I’m just surprised that this happened if the older kids were home.

OMG - Why should a 9 year old girl
Be more responsible for her siblings than their own father is?

Dad should have ALSO been watching out for the 9 year old.

Of course she is not responsible. But in reality most 9 year olds have more common sense than this idiot. Mine definitely did at that age. Many people leave 9 year olds home alone for brief daytime periods, obviously not caring for a 2 year old, but still.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think that initially he decided to leave her in the car because she was sleeping, and then when he got inside that is when he forgot about her.

I think if he had continued to remember that she was napping, he would have gone out to check on her at least once in the 3 hours.

Maybe she isn’t home normally in the afternoons and so when he got home he started on his afternoon routine and went on autopilot at that point.

I’m surprised the 9 year old didn’t notice something was wrong and ask about her sister, though. I feel like usually oldest daughters in these situations are halfway raising their younger siblings, and at age 9 she would have realized her sister couldn’t be left in the car. Not at all saying she’s in any way responsible I’m just surprised that this happened if the older kids were home.

OMG - Why should a 9 year old girl
Be more responsible for her siblings than their own father is?

Dad should have ALSO been watching out for the 9 year old.

I’m the PP who wrote this comment and I 100% agree with you.

My commentary is trying to understand HOW this happened, not who is responsible. There’s no question the dad is 100% responsible. But that doesn’t really answer the question of how this happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Knew it! ADD or bipolar dad games all day while pretending to be a SAH parent.

One of the conditions of Scholtes’ release is that he have no unsupervised contact with children.

His wife told the court she will be taking an extended leave of absence from work, KVOA reported.

It was not immediately clear what Christopher Scholtes does for a living.

No one working is not gonna work. Hope there are good, decent relatives to raise the girls and that BOTH parents are LOCKED UP. With the mom's negligence per her texts, her medical license should be in question. Some anesthesiologists are druggies, wonder if this pair of stellar parents are?

Being a SAHD has nothing to do with this tragedy. This story isn’t about video games or work or anything other than a selfish idiot that killed his kid. Moms do this too. This story wouldn’t be any better if it was a Mom who went to work and did the same thing. Stop the ignorant stereotyping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think that initially he decided to leave her in the car because she was sleeping, and then when he got inside that is when he forgot about her.

I think if he had continued to remember that she was napping, he would have gone out to check on her at least once in the 3 hours.

Maybe she isn’t home normally in the afternoons and so when he got home he started on his afternoon routine and went on autopilot at that point.

I’m surprised the 9 year old didn’t notice something was wrong and ask about her sister, though. I feel like usually oldest daughters in these situations are halfway raising their younger siblings, and at age 9 she would have realized her sister couldn’t be left in the car. Not at all saying she’s in any way responsible I’m just surprised that this happened if the older kids were home.

He had deliberately left the kids (not just sleeping toddler, school aged kids) in the car for containment, repeatedly. This was documented in texts between him and his wife. This was a repeated parenting pattern by him. Not a one off mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think that initially he decided to leave her in the car because she was sleeping, and then when he got inside that is when he forgot about her.

I think if he had continued to remember that she was napping, he would have gone out to check on her at least once in the 3 hours.

Maybe she isn’t home normally in the afternoons and so when he got home he started on his afternoon routine and went on autopilot at that point.

I’m surprised the 9 year old didn’t notice something was wrong and ask about her sister, though. I feel like usually oldest daughters in these situations are halfway raising their younger siblings, and at age 9 she would have realized her sister couldn’t be left in the car. Not at all saying she’s in any way responsible I’m just surprised that this happened if the older kids were home.

Maybe she did say something, and wearing his VR headset and distracted by his day drinking, he missed it?

[Anonymous]

Type in Scholtes, Christopher under family court cases.
He has SO many of them, and with different petitioners!

https://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/docket/FamilyCourtCases/caseSearch.asp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Type in Scholtes, Christopher under family court cases.
He has SO many of them, and with different petitioners!

https://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/docket/FamilyCourtCases/caseSearch.asp

You may be looking at multiple people with the same name. I see two sockets for a Christopher Scholtes born in 1987 but the have the same petitioner and are likely related to the same child support award. There's another docket with a different guy with the same name born in 1960-- not the same person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to leave my kids a lot in the car when they were sleeping.

But, never when it was hot. I just rolled down the windows and sat beside the car, reading in a lawn chair.

My sister does this too. She pulls into the garage, rolls the windows down and makes personal phone calls to catch up with people. Somehow the talking doesn’t wake my nephew but moving him would.

When we lived in a cold climate- IF the weather was right - I’d leave my toddler in the car in the garage, car windows down and interior door to the house open (door opened directly into the kitchen so car was maybe 10ft away from me) and I’d be able to hear him. I’d do meal prep/kitchen chores for a bit until he woke up, periodically walking out to check on him. Worked out very well TBH but requires an amount of discretion & judgment that is lacking these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:giving him the benefit of the doubt, I think that initially he decided to leave her in the car because she was sleeping, and then when he got inside that is when he forgot about her.

I think if he had continued to remember that she was napping, he would have gone out to check on her at least once in the 3 hours.

Maybe she isn’t home normally in the afternoons and so when he got home he started on his afternoon routine and went on autopilot at that point.

I’m surprised the 9 year old didn’t notice something was wrong and ask about her sister, though. I feel like usually oldest daughters in these situations are halfway raising their younger siblings, and at age 9 she would have realized her sister couldn’t be left in the car. Not at all saying she’s in any way responsible I’m just surprised that this happened if the older kids were home.

OMG - Why should a 9 year old girl
Be more responsible for her siblings than their own father is?

Dad should have ALSO been watching out for the 9 year old.

Of course she is not responsible. But in reality most 9 year olds have more common sense than this idiot. Mine definitely did at that age. Many people leave 9 year olds home alone for brief daytime periods, obviously not caring for a 2 year old, but still.

I bet the dad would go ballistic if the kids interrupted him while he was playing videos games so she was afraid to say anything. Keep in mind this is a child who doesn't understand the consequences of keeping a young child in a car, in direct sunlight during hot weather. It's not common sense to her because she is a little kid who depends on her parents and has never had to worry about leaving her baby in a hot car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Type in Scholtes, Christopher under family court cases.
He has SO many of them, and with different petitioners!

https://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/docket/FamilyCourtCases/caseSearch.asp

Different middle name.

He has ONE ex-wife and current wife.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

+1

There are plenty of ways to keep a 2yo safely occupied without resorting to something so dangerous (and illegal). I don’t begrudge a parent for needing a break - I certainly turned on the tv for awhile and handed out snacks etc when I was desperate for a break. Or enforced a bit of “quiet time” in their childproofed rooms once they dropped the nap. We’ve all been there. No need to take these sorts of risks. If he really wanted to extend the nap some, he also could’ve simply driven around for a bit- I’ve certainly done that also. I’d take the long way home and enjoy listening to music etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terribly sad. RIP to the little one. Hoping that someday soon there will be a safety feature installed in cars to prevent this.

I have a minivan and one thing I do is open the sliding doors, every single time I park the car, regardless of when or where. It forces me to walk around the whole van and check the car seats, before closing the doors. DH has started doing this too when he drives the van.

Car manufacturers would not have prevented this dad from getting on his Play Station and possibly day drinking. This was a regular pattern of deliberately leaving the kids in the car, not a one off error.

Your kids are luckier with you and DH and your commitment to their safety and well being. This loser was not that.

It's true -- like many I read that Washington Post piece years ago about how many of these cases are often purely accidental deaths due to overtired parents or some change in routine that causes a parent to not realize a child is sleeping in the back seat (e.g. they aren't usually the ones to take the baby to daycare and they fall into the routine of driving to work instead and forget). Safety features on cars that would for instance not allow you to lock the car without looking in the back seat or would play a loud alarm upon getting out of the car if there was a person in the back seat could have saved lives in those cases.

But this dad KNEW he was leaving the child in the car. He did it on purpose. He claims the car normally alerts him when it shuts off (and he claims he left the car on with the AC running) but he lied about other things (like how long the child had been in the car) so who knows. In any case this dad would have just ignored or overridden any alert designed to prevent him from accidentally leaving the child locked in a car on a 109 degree day. That was his goal.

Normally I have so much sympathy for parents in these cases but not in this one. This was child abuse and neglect.

I just can’t for the life of me wrap my mind around why the car on a hot day would be the chosen place to contain her?

Why not put her in her crib with snacks and an iPad? Not saying that is stellar parenting, but he could probably get away neglecting her for a while with screens and goldfish without the risk of heat death.

He was not only a lazy crap parent, but an incredibly stupid one.

In JULY!
In ARIZONA!