Toddler Dies After Hooters Mom Forgets Child in Hot Car

Fox News ^ | October 31, 2007

[rawhide]

PHOENIX — The mother of a 17-month-old boy found dead after he was left unattended inside a hot car for at least seven hours in a north Phoenix Hooters restaurant was arrested on one felony count of negligent homicide.

Police say the woman, Ashly Duchene, 22, left her son in her car when she arrived at the north Phoenix Hooters restaurant where she works at about 10 a.m. Tuesday. When she returned to the car after her shift at nearly 5 p.m., her son was dead.

Efforts to revive the boy by witnesses, officers and firefighters were unsuccessful. Police Sgt. Joel Tranter said temperatures hit nearly 90 degrees Tuesday, but that it would have been more than 100 degrees inside the car.

FOX 10 Phoenix reports the baby's mother had planned to drop the child off at childcare before heading to work at a restaurant near Bell Road and Interstate 17.

Instead, authorities say the mother went to work with the child still inside the car.

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The baby was in a car seat in the backseat of a Honda Civic, which had very dark tinted windows. Officials believe that made him unnoticable to people going in and out of the restaurant and a car wash next door, the Republic reported.

It's unknown if the mother will face any charges in the child's death. Tranter said situations like this are handled "on a case-by-case basis."

So far, there have been no arrests.

[Sloth]

Where do you get the idea that she had no daycare? The article states: “Duchene usually dropped the boy off at a day-care center on her way to work, but for unknown reasons failed to do so Tuesday, police Sgt. Joel Tranter.”

[I see my hands]

"It is not like she is intelligent.. customers who are just as stupid as she"

Insightful analysis! I bet she's the type who says stupid things all the time. Probably over and over.

[slynx]

I really resent this post of yours. My daughter works at the Hooters in Balitmore. She took on the job to break up her days while her newborn is in the N-ICU at Johns Hopkins Hospital. We live over two hours away and she did not want to leave the baby alone, but no one can spend 24 hours a day in an ICU unit. She moved up there to be only minutes from him. She is a very bright a resourseful girl. She could file for welfare, SSI, state assistance...but has enough dignity and work ethic to know better. She pays her own way.

Her long term career? No way. Short term solution? You bet.

You can not paint everyone with the same brush. You don’t know everyones story.

[clippedwing]

Life for this woman is going to be her sentence...worse than anything prison could do to her.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Since many of these cases involve children who were enrolled in, and regularly attending daycare, there’s no basis for your claim. Harried parents who aren’t getting enough sleep strap their kids in the back seat because they are required by law to that, and then along the way think they’re on their way to work after dropping the child at daycare, just like they’ve done every other morning. Nothing to notice while driving or getting out of the car, because the child isn’t in plain view next to the parent.

[matthew fuller]

"I can’t imagine “forgetting” a child is in the backseat like this ... . This “forgetting” is happening way to often with death as the result. "

I don't believe that we are being completely informed. My money says that there were drugs involved- Did the cops test her- and can they even test after 7 hours?

[rawhide]

update

PHOENIX -- A mother who left her 17-month-old son in the car for at least seven hours while she worked at a west Phoenix Hooters was charged with negligent homicide in the child's death.

Ashly Duchene, 22, was booked after investigators learned she had said she wanted her freedom more than her son.

"We're not saying this was a deliberate act yesterday, but that does give insight to her mindset that caring for her child was not her top priority," Phoenix Police Sgt. Joel Tranter told KTAR.

Tranter said family members told detectives that Duchene had made statements that she did not want to care for the child and wanted her freedom.

"It's also my understanding that other family members, perhaps, had taken the child away from her for brief periods of time," Tranter said. "They had concerns."

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Ashly Duchene

[GovernmentShrinker]

Please tell your daughter that THIS taxpayer respects her for taking that job.

[slynx]

I will. As a newly single mother she needs all the encouragement she can get!

Thanx

[GovernmentShrinker]

It’s very sad that our laws simply don’t make it possible for a young woman like this to hand over her child for adoption, even more than a year after the child’s birth. Hormones convince most ill-equipped young mothers that they want to keep their babies, at first. Then the hormones wear off, and realistically speaking, there’s no way to give the child up for adoption at that point.

[nmh]

“Ashly Duchene, 22, was booked after investigators learned she had said she wanted her freedom more than her son.”

Then why not PUT THE KID UP FOR ADOPTION?

You don’t have to KILL the kid!

[nmh]

Check out #27 for an update:

“Ashly Duchene, 22, was booked after investigators learned she had said she wanted her freedom more than her son.”

[ishabibble]

Don’t listen to the cranks, dear. I was in the same situation as your daughter (sick infant, healthy toddler, husband went out the door) and I worked as a cocktail waitress because it was short hrs. and great money. Also, I didn’t have to report for work until 9 p.m.(when the real trouble and real money starts to pile up!) so I had every single day to be with my children. It’s pretty amazing how people can judge a book by it’s cover. My husband had left me with two babies, mountains of medical debt, and the idiot judge let him skate on child support. All those good timin’ men never could understand why I didn’t date! One night, a startlingly handsome college boy was the fill-in bartender. Long story short, that was Mr. X and he loved and adopted my kids and then we had another one of our very own. That was over thirty yrs. ago, long before Hooters girls, but I was painted with that brush you mention. It all worked out for me, and I hope the same for your daughter and her baby. Good luck to you all!

[A_Tradition_Continues]

Thanks for the post. Not everyone assumes that simply because you work for Hooter's your some kind of bimbo. I'm not a big fan of Hooter's myself (food issues) but I've always found the waitstaff pleasant and professional. I notice the acticle didn't mention the job the individual holds but it could be something other than waitstaff...perhaps she is a cook or a manager or the HR director.

Assumptions by others is a highlight for FR these days.

[webheart]

Poor child. Poor mother. The girl was 22 years old, and she probably had no idea how hot it gets inside a car during the day. Kid was probably asleep, she let him sleep, and then went about her day as if it were a routine day. In all likelihood, she actually thought she left her kid at the daycare.

It’s easy to call people stupid. Makes one feel better about themselves. How smart all of you are for not doing stupid stuff. Or maybe you’ve done stupid stuff, but nobody died as a result. You can proudly call a girl who works at Hooters stupid and immoral.

And it’s easy to look down on a woman who is probably well-endowed, and makes money from it. What is it about having large breasts that makes people automatically hate a woman? Guys go gaga over boobs, then call the woman who has them stupid or a slut. But she was a mother at 22, who carried her baby to term, and was his mother for 17 months. And she was working.

And as far as punishment, one cannot imagine what she must be going through. My stepmother lost 2 grandchildren in a shallow bathtub. My brother drowned in waist-deep water playing with a snorkel. Things happen, sometimes people die from neglect or ignorance or stupidity. I’m sorry for her loss, and the childs death.

The comments from some people make me disgusted. Why would one want to be a conservative in the company of such closed-minded individuals? I thought conservatives were the nice people.

[enraged]

I got your joke! Over and over.

Sad story, funny comment. Now I’ll hit ‘post’ 2 or 3 times

[Sender]

No one should assume that a Hooters employee (or anyone else) is there because they are stupid or incapable. My daughter was a manager for Hooters for awhile, and now she has moved on to other things. You do what you have to do to get by in this life. I have had jobs that I'm not particularly proud of, but they paid the bills. I am in a crappy tech support job right now. It's kind of like working at Hooters; you have to serve the customer and take all kind of abuse, for very little pay. But if you have good character, you just do it, and then move on when opportunity presents itself.

I once posted on another thread that I can't imagine how a mother could forget their child. I got roasted alive by several mothers who told me that is understandable.

[Monterrosa-24]

My wife worked at another restaurant chain where the women dress in the typical “man look” of black slacks, white shirt, tie, and vest. She thought that at least at Hooters the waitresses don’t have to dress like men. At Hooters they all wear hose, shorts, shirts with bras underneath so why do you put them in a category with strippers?

I can see Mohammedan fanatics objecting to the Hooters uniform but not anybody else. The only thing offensive about Hooters is the name of the place.