Locked In Hot Car, 2 Young Boys Die; Woman [Foster Mother] Arrested in Deaths

Associated Press via CBSNews.com & Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | July 9, 2003

[newgeezer]

For discussion and educational use only.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide detectives examine the car in which they say the brothers, age 3 and 5, were locked in for about five hours before they were discovered by police. (Photo: AP)

---

Locked In Hot Car, 2 Boys Die
LANCASTER, Calif., July 9, 2003


Two young boys died Tuesday after being locked for five hours in a sport utility vehicle in sweltering heat outside a daycare center, authorities said.

The boys, ages 3 and 5, were found by sheriff's deputies around 2 p.m. in the driveway of the daycare center.

Sheriff's Sgt. Paul Patterson says the 5-year-old was dead. His brother, who was severely dehydrated, died a short time later at a hospital.

Authorities say the boys had recently been placed in the foster care of the woman who ran the center.

Police also say she is the owner of the car in which the children were found.

They say the woman, whose identity was not released, told authorities that she left the children in the car at around 9 a.m.

A woman who answered the phone at A Child's Place Daycare declined to comment.

Afternoon temperatures hovered around 100 degrees in Lancaster, a high desert town about 70 miles north of Los Angeles. But Patterson said the temperature inside a closed car could have exceeded 120 degrees.

© MMIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

---

Woman Arrested in Deaths of 2 Young Boys

LANCASTER, Calif. (AP)--The foster mother of two young boys who died after being left five hours in a sweltering sport utility vehicle was arrested for investigation of child endangerment.

Leslie Sue Smoot, 48, was booked late Tuesday night and held on $100,000 bail. No court date was scheduled.

Sheriff Lee Baca said earlier Tuesday that those responsible for leaving the children in the car would be charged with child endangerment and possibly manslaughter.

``Vehicles are not playpens,'' he said. ``Vehicles are not baby sitters. And vehicles, when they are not properly ventilated, are death traps.''

Smoot told authorities she left the boys, ages 3 and 5, in the car around 9 a.m. outside A Child's Place Daycare, which she ran.

``She indicated she thought someone else was going to get the children out of the car, possibly her husband,'' Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Al Grotefend said. ``There was some miscommunication.''

Smoot told investigators she discovered the boys in their car seats when she returned in the afternoon and pulled them from the vehicle.

The 5-year-old was dead. His brother, who was severely dehydrated, died a short time later at a hospital, sheriff's Sgt. Paul Patterson said.

Afternoon temperatures hovered around 100 degrees in the high desert town about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Officials from the Department of Children and Family Services said they will investigate.

A woman who answered the phone at A Child's Place Daycare declined to comment. Friends and parents gathered Tuesday at the 24-hour day care center.

Naeemah Edwards, whose daughter attended the center, told KABC-TV she was shocked.

``They come in with my daughter, and they play together,'' she said, adding that she would not let her child to return to the center.

AP-NY-07-09-03 0642EDT

Copyright 2003, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

[newgeezer]

Alouette - get a load of post 9.

Thanks so much for escalating the p*ssing match.

[wideawake]

Pat Robertson is not an anti-Semite and he is not a bad man. Proseltyzing for his religion is a requirement of his faith. It is not his fault that some of the liberal denominations of Judaism fail to provide their members with enough scriptural expertise to counter the arguments of a missionary.

Wow.

That's about the most evenhanded treatment of missionaries I've seen on FR.

[Rodney King]

Electric hybrids are superior in many ways - fuel efficiency, emissions, etc. - to the SUV in which these boys died.

Well yeah, but they are far inferior in lots of other ways.. Size, hauling capacity, safety, not looking like a fag.. etc.

[wideawake]

When someone's community is being slandered behind their back, and I don't have the knowledge to refute the slanderer I think that calling in an expert makes sense.

Too many people on FR love to make nasty all-encompassing judgments about other people's religious communities. I don't think they should go unchallenged.

[Rodney King]

Obviously, you haven't been to Israel in a while, which would explain why you are so pro-Haredi.

Do people cut lines a lot there? If you challenge them do they acquiesce?

Just curious. In Zurich people just walk down the sidewalk without regard to anyone else and just bump right into you. It's quite amusing really. They are not good about lines either. They don't outright cut if the line exists, but if the line has any gaps or is just sort of forming they can be quite rude.

And of course, like all Eruopean nations, one in 10 of them hasn't showered in a month, so on the tram you are often exposed to terrible B.O.

[newgeezer]

Would you folks kindly take your p*ssing match elsewhere? I'd hate to see this thread get axed on account of it.

wide: Next time, please consider clicking the Report Abuse link, and get the offending comment removed. Then, if you still want to get something going, try FReepmail.

[joesnuffy]

How many of these women are on prozac or a generic equivilant or a cocktail of other psycho-trophic drugs with little consideration to the synergistic affects

There is a ship load of people out there driving cars in charge of potentially dangerous equipment who may be more than a few fries short a happy meal...

How else could you "forget" you locked children in a hot car...their attention drawn to a sale in the mall or something else equally pressing...and they completely "space out" something as critical as a child's life..

[cspackler]

We had a case similar to this here in Iowa last year. Upwardly mobile professional woman "forgot" to drop her 8 month old off before going to work at the hospital. Found her dead that afternoon in her car.

IIRC, no charges were filed. None.

[Sabertooth]

I can't imagine a normal five year old being unable to get out of a car.

I wonder if he was strapped into a car seat.

[wideawake]

Thanks for the advice, but I still beleive that sunshine is the best disinfectant.

[wideawake]

Another good point.

[Alouette]

why don't you care about Jews being coerced away from Judaism by seductive missionary movements targeted specifically toward those with a weak religious education

Are you referring to yourself? What missionary put a gun to your head and forced you into the Methodist church? Or was it the Presbyterian? Or did nobody coerce you, but you just go there for the socializing and the cookies?

My son lives in Moscow where he has built up thriving Jewish congregations OUT OF NOTHING, established Jewish schools, built mikvaos, soup kitchens, summer camps, Bible study groups all over the former Soviet Union where Judaism was previously declared extinct. He has brought literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of Jews back to their heritage. And he has been beaten up by skinheads and also by secular Jews who are jealous of his success.

Don't you dare ever again accuse me of taking welfare handouts or ignoring the religious and community needs of other Jews not members of my sect. What the hell have YOU EVER DONE other than you last nasty little bit of MOTZEE SHEM RA (that's the most serious form of LASHON HARA which you think you know about) accusing Jewish mothers of murdering their own babies?

[cspackler]

Can't you all PLEASE take this to an appropriate place? Gettin' a little tiresome...

[steplock]

That's one of the weaknesses of law - WHO cares about killing babies? After all - that was only a "Later Term Abortion".

[BossLady]

"How many of these women are on prozac or a generic equivilant or a cocktail of other psycho-trophic drugs with little consideration to the synergistic affects"

Driving While Depressed... :o That would cover a large percentage of America! Wonder what the latest stats are......

[BMiles2112]

Electric hybrids are superior in many ways - fuel efficiency, emissions, etc. - to the SUV in which these boys died

Only superior if money is no object, and energy efficiency is everything. At this point, the electric hybrids are just fancy toys. You would have to put several hundred thousand miles on just to break even when compared to similarly equipped cars.

Oh wait, this is a post a stupid woman who deserves a firing squad. I got sidetracked.