Two Florida parents have been arrested on multiple charges stemming from the car death of their 2-year-old daughter.
Christopher McLean, 32, and Kathreen Adams, 23, were arrested on charges of child neglect and possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia after their toddler died Tuesday, according to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office.
The girl was left in a car outside the couple’s home in the unincorporated Florida Panhandle community of Prosperity for about 14 hours while McLean and Adams were inside the entire time, the sheriff’s office said.
Additional charges are expected
Deputies responded to a 911 call Tuesday about the girl in the car. They arrived after a few minutes and started trying to revive her, but it was too late, and she was pronounced dead shortly after.
Adams initially told investigators she had found her daughter unresponsive at the home, but they immediately became suspicious, Holmes County Sheriff John Tate said during a news conference.
Deputies noticed the girl was very hot to the touch. Paramedics found her temperature to be 107 degrees, he said.
“We knew something wasn’t right,” Tate said as she spoke to the girl’s mother. “It didn’t pass the smell test. Common sense tells you that most of the time if you’re in a house you’re not going to get that hot.”
When pressed for more evidence, Tate said Adams admitted she had picked up her two children at a family member’s house and returned around midnight.
“When he got home, along with the baby’s father, the baby was asleep in the car seat and they decided to leave the child in the car and eventually didn’t wake up or realize the child was in the car until around of 3. pm,” he said.
Deputies searched the couple and found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, and took blood samples from McLean and Adams, Tate said. The result of these tests is pending.
The sheriff’s office said “additional charges will be filed pending the results of the autopsy.”
The girl’s 4-year-old brother was handed over to the Department of Children and Families.
Hot car deaths in 2023
Tuesday’s tragedy marked the fourth hot car death in the U.S. so far this year and the second in Florida, according to Kids and Car Safety, a group that tries to educate the public about the problem.
According to the group, Florida is No. 2 in the nation for hot car deaths involving children.
Temperatures in the region where the girl died reached 80 degrees on Tuesday, and her temperature at the time she was found was 107 degrees.
The other three hot car deaths this year happened in Port St. Lucie, Florida on March 6, Atmore, Alabama on February 27, and Spring Valley, New York on May 9. All involved children between 1 and 2 years of age and all. They are believed to have been left in cars unintentionally, according to Kids and Car Safety.
In 2022, 36 children died in hot cars, an increase from the lowest numbers during the pandemic, but fewer than the record years in 2018 and 2019. During those years, a total of 107 children died in hot cars, Kids says and Car Safety.
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How does this happen?
One of the biggest issues contributing to hot car driving deaths is the fact that many parents don’t think it could happen to them, said Amber Rollins, spokeswoman for Kids and Car Safety.
“People think there’s no way, under any condition, that this could happen, that someone could unknowingly leave their child in their car,” he said. “They think, ‘This must be a monster.'”
“It can happen to anyone,” he added.
Many parents or other loved ones who leave children in hot cars are not charged because of a lack of criminal intent. Defendants are often found not guilty or eventually have their convictions overturned because the vast majority are tragic accidents.
While more than 70 parents have been charged in hot-car deaths in the past five years, it’s harder to say how many have been convicted. Prosecutors who issue press releases when they have charged a parent can just as easily abandon them without notifying the public. Many cases simply fade away.
Of the 170 deaths over the past five years, Kids and Cars has only been able to confirm 19 convictions, Rollins said.
“But even if they’re not convicted, it still ruins their lives, reputations, careers, friendships, et cetera,” he said. “The ripple effect is difficult to quantify.”
prevention
Experts say there are several ways parents can avoid making the worst mistake of their lives.
For starters, they say there’s never a good reason to leave a child alone in a car for any length of time.
Another method is to make a phone call, even though it might seem a little silly, Rollins said.
“Anytime you have multiple kids, there’s always chaos,” she said. “Someone’s having a fit, something’s spilling, there’s so much going on.”
Another tip is for parents to create a visual reminder in the front seat that a toddler is in the back.
“Put the diaper bag in the front seat.” Even better, parents can keep a stuffed animal in the back seat and whenever they put their child in the back, they can bring the stuffed animal to the front. “Do it every time and there’s a lot less chance of that happening to you,” Rollins said.
