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

[Anonymous]

This is pretty damning re: the mom

An affidavit alleges that Scholtes told authorities that it was not unusual for him and his wife, a medical doctor, to leave their daughter in the running car while it was parked in the garage, according to NBC affiliate KVOA of Tucson. He said he had parked in the driveway because there was exercise equipment in the garage.

He also said that he usually receives alerts if his car becomes too hot or shuts off, but he did not get any on the day of the incident, according to the affidavit.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/father-charged-with-murder-after-2-year-old-is-left-in-car-during-109-degree-heat-wave-for-3-hours-police-say/ar-BB1pVFtr?ocid=BingNewsSerp

The driveway was in direct sun in a 109 degree heatwave.

[Anonymous]

Better he would have joined a gym with childcare if he needed breaks.

Dude does not look like he was hitting the exercise equipment, that was likely Erika. He appears to have been hitting the Mountain Dew and Doritos with his Play Station games.

Anyone have a car that send alerts re: interior temperature? Cars don't effectively cool when not moving. He had to know that living in AZ.

[Anonymous]

I feel so bad for the older two kids. They will probably wonder if there was anything they could have done to prevent this. They never should have been put in this position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for the older two kids. They will probably wonder if there was anything they could have done to prevent this. They never should have been put in this position.

I’ve thought about this too , especially the 9 year old

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is pretty damning re: the mom

An affidavit alleges that Scholtes told authorities that it was not unusual for him and his wife, a medical doctor, to leave their daughter in the running car while it was parked in the garage, according to NBC affiliate KVOA of Tucson. He said he had parked in the driveway because there was exercise equipment in the garage.

He also said that he usually receives alerts if his car becomes too hot or shuts off, but he did not get any on the day of the incident, according to the affidavit.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/father-charged-with-murder-after-2-year-old-is-left-in-car-during-109-degree-heat-wave-for-3-hours-police-say/ar-BB1pVFtr?ocid=BingNewsSerp

The driveway was in direct sun in a 109 degree heatwave.

Hmm so we are going to believe the guy who definitely left his 2 year old in a car in 109 degree heat for three hours that this is something his wife "regularly" does?

Look, the facts may eventually reveal negligence by the mom. But the fact that some of you are leaving right past the OBVIOUS CRIMINAL NEGLECT of the father to try to blame the mom here is nuts. She apparently told him repeatedly not to do this. The kids said HE does this regularly but not that she does. And now he's trying to claim "oh we both did this all the time." Of course he's claiming that! He's trying to absolve himself of guilt.

Believing him just so you can blame the mom for this horrible incident says a LOT about you as a person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He decided a goddamn video game was more important than his little girl.

Pig.

Horrifyingly there are other similar cases. Here is one.

https://iheartintelligence.com/gaming-addict-pleads-guilty-to-killing-his-seven-week-old-son-while-playing-playstation-as-the-childs-crying-interrupted-his-game/

[Anonymous]

Both parents are to blame. Mom knew he was regularly putting the kids' lives in danger and took no effective actions to protect them, even if she did not leave in car. That so many are rushing to excuse her negligence is odd on a parenting board. Would you say the same if a nanny had engaged in the same behavior and no other childcare was found? Whether she did the same thing remains to be seen. I expect she will be charged with neglect either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The mother's knowledge of the pattern of conduct matters under AZ statute

Neglect as defined in A.R.S. § 8-201 (22) means:

The inability or unwillingness of a parent, guardian or custodian of a child to provide that child with supervision, food, clothing, shelter or medical care if that inability or unwillingness causes substantial risk of harm to the child's health or welfare

I don't know AZ law well but in states where I have practiced this would not implicate the mom in most cases because the children were in their dad's care at the time. If she'd left the kids with a nanny or sitter who she knew would leave the kids in the car then she could be charged with neglect. But it's more complicated because she left the kids in the care of their other parents, who has the exact same duty of care that she does.

Parents are (usually) not legally required to supervise each other's parenting or to remove children from the care of the other parent. Parents can actually get in trouble for trying to keep kids out of the other parent's care-- there are many, many divorce and custody cases that hinge in one parent denying the other parent access to kids.

The father definitely violated the statute above. The mom probably didn't unless AZ has some unique case law on this I don't know about.

[Anonymous]

They were not divorced and this was not a custody case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I usually have a lot of empathy for parents who accidentally do this after reading that one article years ago. I was not one to jump on the parents whose baby died on the lake last week because I got how they maybe didn’t realize her body couldn’t manage the heat. But this is a stay at home dad of 3 kids, who went inside his house in ARIZONA, left the youngest in the car in summer in ARIZONA, and then got distracted by video games. You’re a stay at home dad of kids who are 3,5,9 playing video games for 2-3 hours at a time while your wife works?

It’s just negligence. It isn’t “I was out of my routine and went into work because my brain was in autopilot and thought she was at daycare.” She boiled to death in a car in Arizona in the summer, it’s ungodly.

+1 - I was right there with you, ready to read about how it was a change in routine and would usually never have the child, its ahorrible mistake, etc. But then it turns out HE KNEW she was in there and HE CHOSE to leave her there. There is no mistake or negligence here.

And I'm not ready to blame the wife. She was likely doing everything to keep the family functional and support everyone day to day. If the roles were reversed - a SAHM knowingly left her child in a hot car to go watch TikTok videos while her husband was at work - let's be honest, no one would be blaming the husband in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Nothing prevented mom from arranging safe care for the children. Not everyone is cut out to be full time childcare, even if they are otherwise unemployable.

He seems to want to blame Acura for his failure as a parent, good luck with that. The lack of remorse and attempts to evade responsibility are striking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both parents are to blame. Mom knew he was regularly putting the kids' lives in danger and took no effective actions to protect them, even if she did not leave in car. That so many are rushing to excuse her negligence is odd on a parenting board. Would you say the same if a nanny had engaged in the same behavior and no other childcare was found? Whether she did the same thing remains to be seen. I expect she will be charged with neglect either way.

Do you mean, would we blame the nanny if she were not there and the parent did this? No, that wouldn't make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I usually have a lot of empathy for parents who accidentally do this after reading that one article years ago. I was not one to jump on the parents whose baby died on the lake last week because I got how they maybe didn’t realize her body couldn’t manage the heat. But this is a stay at home dad of 3 kids, who went inside his house in ARIZONA, left the youngest in the car in summer in ARIZONA, and then got distracted by video games. You’re a stay at home dad of kids who are 3,5,9 playing video games for 2-3 hours at a time while your wife works?

It’s just negligence. It isn’t “I was out of my routine and went into work because my brain was in autopilot and thought she was at daycare.” She boiled to death in a car in Arizona in the summer, it’s ungodly.

+1 - I was right there with you, ready to read about how it was a change in routine and would usually never have the child, its ahorrible mistake, etc. But then it turns out HE KNEW she was in there and HE CHOSE to leave her there. There is no mistake or negligence here.

And I'm not ready to blame the wife. She was likely doing everything to keep the family functional and support everyone day to day. If the roles were reversed - a SAHM knowingly left her child in a hot car to go watch TikTok videos while her husband was at work - let's be honest, no one would be blaming the husband in this situation.

If the husband knew the wife was regularly putting the kids' lives in danger of course they would both have culpability to differing degrees. Who else do the kids have to arrange safe childcare if not other parent?

This arrangement was likely a figleaf for dad getting fired. Mom is uber protective of him but he's content to throw her under the bus too. What a messed up situation. The poor other kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both parents are to blame. Mom knew he was regularly putting the kids' lives in danger and took no effective actions to protect them, even if she did not leave in car. That so many are rushing to excuse her negligence is odd on a parenting board. Would you say the same if a nanny had engaged in the same behavior and no other childcare was found? Whether she did the same thing remains to be seen. I expect she will be charged with neglect either way.

Do you mean, would we blame the nanny if she were not there and the parent did this? No, that wouldn't make sense.

Troll.

[Anonymous]

Stupid people need to stop breeding.

Then they're texting about their kids death???? You can't make this up.