In a tragic incident, a one-year-old girl in Texas died after her mother left her in a hot car in Texas for more than 9 hours, police said.
The mother of three dropped off her two older children at a day care Thursday morning and took her one-year-old back home with her, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzales said in a tweet.
“The initial report is that the mother had three children, ages five, three, and one, that she was going to take to day care,” Sergeant Ben Beall said at a press conference Thursday.
“She dropped off the five-year-old and the three-year-old, but apparently left the one-year-old child in the vehicle. She returned home, apparently went inside the house, came back out, went to exercise, came home,” Beall stated.
The toddler was left in the car, a Honda Civic, from 8.30 a.m. until 6 p.m., according to police. The temperature in Texas on Thursday, the day of the incident, was at 90 degrees, reports said.
The mother claimed that she did not realize that her daughter was not at the day care center with her other two children until she picked them up using a different car, and asked about her one-year-old.
“The day care had no record of the one year old being dropped off,” Beall said.
The mother and the day care supervisor went back to her house after realizing that the toddler was “missing.” They searched the car and found the 1-year-old in the backseat, according to People.
The body of the child was found on the floorboards, police deputies told ABC13.
She was declared dead Thursday evening.
The mother will face immediate charges or the case will be sent to a grand jury, the deputies said.
