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)

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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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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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.

[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!