The kids we read about are almost all belted into child seats. Those go in the back seat, not the trunk.
This is the first kids-in-a-trunk story I've ever read.
It got really bad a couple of years back. Children were being found dead all over the country when they "accidentally locked themselves in the trunks of cars". This year, it seems to be coming back...
Police: 8-year-old died locked in car trunk
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/25/boy.in.trunk.ap/
GALLUP, NM — Relatives drove around their neighborhood for up to an hour searching for four young cousins before discovering they were locked in the trunk of the car, suffocating and dying from the heat.
http://www.aarrgghh.com/no_way/kidsCar.htm
No more room in your car? Put the kids in the trunk
http://www.zone81.com/arch_news/1027402875129/
I've always thought that while a few of them may have been accidental, the majority of them were deliberately put in the trunk of the car. Call me cynical, but I believe this was definitely abuse, and possibly an attempt to have the children meet an "accidental" death...