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

[CyberAnt]

This isn't tragic! This is criminal! I cannot believe anyone with half a brain would not miss 2 children from 9 am until 2 pm. Where did she think the children were? If someone else would have brought them into the house - wouldn't she have seen them? It says, "when she came back" - back from where? - she's running a day care and she's not there. I'm outraged!

[newgeezer]

you have mail.

Nobody by that name.

[1rudeboy]

This is a public forum. If someone decides to violate the posting guidelines, then they should be informed in public. Clicking 'Abuse' is an option available to everyone, but not a compulsory requirement in order to maintain your delicate sensiblities. If the thread gets trashed, so be it . . . the mods can excise the offending remarks or excise the thread. In the latter case, the thread can be posted again. I do not feel that it would be a great loss to our society if the responses to a thread about two kids dying in a SUV would be lost.

[newgeezer]

I got the impression she had the boys in the car as she drove to work (which happens to be a daycare). Instead of taking them inside with her (?!), she left them in the car. Her story seems to be that she thought her husband was going to show up shortly thereafter, retrieve the boys from the car, and take them with him.

In other words, she claims she was using the car (and car seats?) as a temporary holding cell for the two little boys, ages 3 and 5.

[newgeezer]

IIRC, no charges were filed. None.

Charged with involuntary manslaughter and neglect of a dependent person. Found not guilty.

Dec. 10, 2001 -- A mother who testified she was distracted and running late for work when she left her 7-month-old daughter in her minivan was found innocent Monday in the girl's death.

Judge Paul Huscher found Kari Engholm innocent of involuntary manslaughter and neglect of a dependent person in the June 26 death of her daughter, Clare. Temperatures were near 90 that day and the girl died from overheating.

``We're very pleased with Judge Huscher's decision,'' Engholm said outside the Dallas County Courthouse. Engholm said Huscher, who heard the case without a jury, recognized that Clare's death was a ``heartbreaking, tragic accident.''

Defense attorneys had said in closing arguments that prosecutors had failed to prove that Engholm had acted recklessly. The judge agreed, saying Engholm did not consciously forget about her child and so did not act with reckless disregard for her daughter's safety.

``The court cannot hold the mother accountable in a criminal proceeding, even for reprehensible conduct, if that conduct does not fall within the statutory elements of the crime charged,'' he said.

A prosecutor expressed disappointment.

``The way this verdict reads, then if somebody just forgot, then there is no case,'' county attorney Wayne Reisetter said.

Engholm, 35, an administrator at Dallas County Hospital, testified at her trial that she routinely took Clare to a baby sitter and then took her 3-year-old son, Eric, to a day care center.

On that day, she was running late and dropped her son off first. She then drove to the hospital and went to work, forgetting that her daughter was still in the minivan. She said she was preoccupied with some meetings coming up at work.

``The fact remains that we've lost a member of our family and our family will never be the same,'' she said. ``She's in our hearts and minds every day.''

Engholm found her daughter's body in her car seat when she returned to the day care center to pick up her son. One defense witness who went there to be with her testified that her friend had ``the most awful look. Her face -- I can't even describe the grief she was feeling.''

Engholm said she felt as though she had been judge harshly by public opinion.

``There's probably nothing I can say to those people, but it's probably a small segment of people,'' she said. ``Tragedies happen every day. We're all human, we're all fallible. This could have happened to anyone.''

[finnman69]

They should sentence her to 24 hours in the SUV on a hot sunny day and see how she does.

[finnman69]

The bad thing is this lady was in charge of the Day Care! In charge of all those kids!

BINGO. Day care horror story

[CyberAnt]

Whatever her excuse is - it cannot satisfy the reason for leaving children in a car - hot or not!!

[Henrietta]

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

Look, whether or not the kids were killed is not the issue; the issue is what was the intent of the killer? People who kill through recklessness or negligence are not charged with first degree murder, which requires intent to kill, they are charged with manslaughter. It is not a weakness in the law; we have decided that negligent or reckless killings do not merit the same punishment as an intentional killing. This concept is not new; it has been recognized at common law for almost one thousand years.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

``There was some miscommunication.''

How comforting.

[admiralsn]

I say 10 hours (5 for each child), in the same temp., 9am to 2pm. And let everyone hold up pictures of the babies and signs that say "I think your husband is coming to get you." Throw in some babies crying so she canget that sound in her head.

[LibWhacker]

When will these idiots EVER learn NOT to do this?!?!?!?!?!

Every summer we hear about half-a-dozen, or more, of these cases and it turns my stomach each time. Don't these people EVER watch the news or pick up a newspaper? Perhaps we need to start stringing some of these ignorant, self-absorbed sh*** up on telephone poles to get the message across to the others.

[admiralsn]

I am serious. I agree with you. The more that I thought about this case, the more I thought about the fact that we never seem to stop hearing about cases like this one. Maybe we need more public service announcements and campaigns to help prevent this type of thing. Kind of like those urging caution at RailRoad crossings or something like that. Afterall, someone needs to stand up for these kids if their own parents won't defend them.

[Little Ray]

How much of this is due to the fact that the poor kids were immobilized in there car seats and unable to free themselves? Dunno 'bout the three year old, but at five I could dang sure get out of the car myself.

[steplock]

Aha! Henrietta is a LAWYER! :>)

Sounds like a DEFENSE LAWYER at that!

There was a story - I think it was part of Heinlein's "Lazarus" series - where Lazarus and his "daughters/sisters/female self" arrived at a planet where they had succeeded in ridding the planet of the lawyer vermin! (I won't detail how but I think it was called "Shakespear's Planet") The planet had become peaceful and very polite since that time.

True Justice was practiced - if you ran over someone because you were drunk (or other negligent act) - guess what!? Your punishment was that you were tied to the road while either the person you hit, or his closest survivor got to run over you with a car. Other punishments could be, by victims choice only, monetary compensation or slavery.

That made you reallll careful.

a true accident - no negligence - no punishment.

So in the case of this "woman" (signifies erroneously being human), her just punishment, as stated previously here, would be for her to be locked up in a car on a hot day and let her roast until dead.

NOW I remember how they got rid of the lawyers! If you were a lawyer and decided to try to get this female free, and you lost, your get to share in the punishment.

That also had the effect of no more frivolous law suits! Loser paid everything including what he was suing for!

After all - as per the whinney/wimpy left wing radicals - it's only fair! right!?

[Henrietta]

Hey, if you don't like the law, blame the guys in merry old England, not me. I'm just telling you what the law is, and what she's likely to be charged with. If you don't like it, then you should work to change the law.

[b9]

In my version of a perfect world, all mothers would be required to raise their own children .
Day care centers would be moot.
We made a conscious decision to do whatever it took...
I freelanced (illustration) from home, for publishers.
It was grueling at times but so worth it to be our kids'
mom and dad.
No one will love your kids more than you do, and I think
parents who put their kids in day care don't get that.

[luckystarmom]

The 5 year old was probably in a carseat, and some of those are hard to get out of.

Now, they have the locks on the door that make it so that the doors cannot be opened by someone on the inside of the car.

[ninergold3]

"Even if my kids wanted to stay in the car I would take them inside kicking and screaming if necessary."

Of course in this crazy world we live in you would have been arrested for upsetting the poor kids!