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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He was with LE. She went in the ambulance.

Also, I believe they took the child to her assigned hospital. I thought the 'we' in We lost her was the medical people at the hospital - I may be wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He was with LE. She went in the ambulance.

Also, I believe they took the child to her assigned hospital. I thought the 'we' in We lost her was the medical people at the hospital - I may be wrong.

I read it as she was texting with the kid's father > "we." It was when she switched from brief anger to sharing/teaming with him, reminiscing "she was perfect" etc. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have links to articles, podcasts, books, etc. that explain the dynamics in this type of family where the mom fails to protect from known dangerous dad but is NOT financially dependent?

I'd guess she may have experienced dysfunction as a child or something?

I'd be more sympathetic but for proof this happened repeatedly and she knew. With temps 109 and higher it was a matter of time. That poor child suffered and will never grow up.

Then the mom argued for him to be released back into the home, are the older girls comfortable with that? Is he angry about what the told the cops? It's so dysfunctional. Her not working since he can't be with the kids alone is also not sustainable.

I just don't understand not protecting your child or even trying. The expression "talk is cheap" comes to mind. So sad.

[Anonymous]

Why are people wasting their time trying to figure this out. It is a case of pop-culture Darwinism. Unfortunately the kids have to pay for their parents’ stupidity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people wasting their time trying to figure this out. It is a case of pop-culture Darwinism. Unfortunately the kids have to pay for their parents’ stupidity.

NP but I think as a society it is our job to prevent something like this from happening again if possible. And to protect those other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people wasting their time trying to figure this out. It is a case of pop-culture Darwinism. Unfortunately the kids have to pay for their parents’ stupidity.

I think it’s as simple as this. Kids got a lazy idiot dad and unfortunately the price was high on this day.

[Anonymous]

He's more than a lazy idiot.

If he's the pillar of a community, it's criminals.

Not only is he a deadbeat dad with years of litigation re: non-payment of 1st kid and not showing up in court > civil orders of arrest being issued multiple times

and not only does he have a fairly recent SEALED criminal case, there are these cases in Tuscon. (They live in a suburb).

https://apps.supremecourt.az.gov/publicaccess/caselookup.aspx

M-1041-CM-17008043 - ASSAULT-WITH INTENT OR KNOWINGLY CAUSE INJURY in 2017 and

SPEED GREATER THAN REASONABLE AND PRUDENT in 2016

J-0724-TR-2009180098 - Note: There is a vehicle registration hold for this party. Pay delinquent fines here from 2009

And more reckless driving in June 2024 SPEED GREATER THAN REASONABLE AND PRUDENT 6/25/2024

[Anonymous]

Mothers do this too. If they didn't there wouldn't be those tips to put your purse in the back with the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mothers do this too. If they didn't there wouldn't be those tips to put your purse in the back with the kid.

He didn't forget about his kid. He left her intentionally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mothers do this too. If they didn't there wouldn't be those tips to put your purse in the back with the kid.

I generally have a lot of empathy for parents who forget their kids, because I had an incident where I went on autopilot and forgot where my kid was, and it was only by the luck that it was in the other direction and I went to pick up my kid at daycare when they were at Grandma's. So, I totally understand how it could happen.

But it seems as though, in this case, he intentionally left the kid in the car. He may have later forgotten to check, or lost track of time and not realized how long it was, but this happened because he decided to let her sleep in the heat, and to go play video games. That's a really different situation. A purse in the car wouldn't have helped, because he decided to leave her there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mothers do this too. If they didn't there wouldn't be those tips to put your purse in the back with the kid.

I generally have a lot of empathy for parents who forget their kids, because I had an incident where I went on autopilot and forgot where my kid was, and it was only by the luck that it was in the other direction and I went to pick up my kid at daycare when they were at Grandma's. So, I totally understand how it could happen.

But it seems as though, in this case, he intentionally left the kid in the car. He may have later forgotten to check, or lost track of time and not realized how long it was, but this happened because he decided to let her sleep in the heat, and to go play video games. That's a really different situation. A purse in the car wouldn't have helped, because he decided to leave her there.

This. And it was 109 and he left her in direct sunlight. He knew from past incidents that the car would turn off in 20 min. Per video he did not go out to check on her even once in 3+ hours. He was on PS and possibly day drinking (tox screen on 1/2 full glass seized still to come). Was not a one off mistake. Per older kids he left all 3 in car regularly, using it for containment and as a babysitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Special needs = constant screaming and/or ability to buckle her in?

JFC. Go to hell with your ignorance. You belong elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

I'm leaning toward thinking that they both wanted to kill their child, and that this is what they came up with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm leaning toward thinking that they both wanted to kill their child, and that this is what they came up with.

This is what I was thinking from the start yet didn't want to say that for some reason. Their text messaging seems fake, like they expected it to be discovered. But their messaging is also stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm leaning toward thinking that they both wanted to kill their child, and that this is what they came up with.

I think if they were planning it he would say “I forgot she was there”, not “I decided to leave her there, and then didn’t check on her.”