Toddler dies after parents in Florida ‘decided to leave her in a car seat’ when she fell asleep on her way home: Two-year-old was found 14 hours later with a temperature of 107 degrees
- The two-year-old girl from Florida died after her parents left her in her car seat for more than 14 hours
- The child’s parents left her asleep in the car when they came home from work – they didn’t find her until after 3pm the next day
- Holmes County Sheriff blamed tragedy on drug use as investigators say they found methamphetamine at the couple’s home
A two-year-old Florida girl who fell asleep in a hot car has died after police say her parents left her inside the sweltering vehicle for 14 hours.
The girl’s parents, Kathreen Adams, 23, and Christopher McLean, 32, have been arrested and charged with child neglect and possession of methamphetamines and drug paraphernalia.
Additional charges will likely be added later, Holmes County Sheriff John Tate said.
Mugshots of Christopher McLean, 32, and Kathreen Adams, 23 – the parents of the toddler who died after being left in a car for 14 hours
Deputies responded to a home in the Florida Panhandle neighborhood of Prosperity around 3:45 p.m. on May 16 after an inconsolable woman called 911.
Tate said the emergency operator was unable to get the necessary information from the woman because she was screaming so much.
The responding deputy was greeted at home by someone carrying the unresponsive child.
The officer immediately began administering CPR until emergency services arrived. The child was pronounced dead shortly after their arrival.
Initially, Adams told authorities she found her daughter inside the home unresponsive. However, according to the sheriff, the child’s temperature was 107 degrees, which made his story implausible.
During their investigation, authorities learned that the girl had been left in the car for approximately 14 hours. Adams eventually admitted to deputies that she left work around midnight and went to a relative’s house to pick up her two- and four-year-old children.
The couple then took the children home, the sheriff said.
“The baby was sleeping in the car seat. They decided to leave the child in the car and went inside and eventually fell asleep and didn’t wake up or realize the child was in the car. car until around 3:41 p.m. that afternoon,” he said.
He added that Adams “deliberately, by his own statement, deliberately left the child in the car overnight.”
McLean was uncooperative, invoked his right “and did not wish to make a statement to us or speak to us at this time,” Tate said.
Sheriff John Tate told reporters his message to the community following the tragic incident was: don’t use drugs. I honestly believe that meth, the drug is the culprit in this death’
It is unclear exactly what time the couple actually discovered their daughter inside the car and when 911 was subsequently called.
Adams also told law enforcement that the four-year-old got out of the car and entered the house.
“We have no evidence that he was in the car or in the house. It’s always something we’re trying to find out,” the sheriff said.
The four-year-old has since been taken into the custody of the Department for Children and Families.
A search of the couple’s home found methamphetamine, marijuana, CBD gum and drug paraphernalia, the sheriff’s office told reporters.
Adams confirmed to authorities that she and McLean smoked marijuana after entering the house.
The sheriff said his message to the community was, “Don’t do drugs. I honestly believe that methamphetamine, the drug is the culprit of this death.
“That’s what happens when you use drugs, you lose your sense of what’s going on in reality and these kinds of things happen. If they weren’t on drugs, we probably wouldn’t be here today,” he continued.
