Mom of Baby Left in Hot Car By East Granby Daycare Provider Speaks Out

Juliette Dunlevy left her infant daughter Mia in the care of Pam Lacharite, owner of Scribbles and Giggles Daycare in East Granby, when she went back to work last April, WFSB reports.

On July 8 Lacharite took Mia in the car with her to pick up three other children from a local church’s Vacation Bible School program. She allegedly left the baby in the back seat of her car. The temperature outside that day was 85 degrees. Church workers heard the baby’s cries, opened the car doors and gave her a bottle.

Baby Mia had been in the car for at least 20 minutes while her daycare provider was inside the church.

Lacharite told police she forgot the baby was in the car. Dunlevy told WFSB when she picked up Mia from daycare that day, Lacharite never mentioned what happened. Dunleavy noticed when she picked up her baby that she was warm but Lacharite said it was probably because she was teething. It was only later that night when Dunleavy got a call from police that she found out what happened.

Lacharite voluntarily surrendered her daycare license one week after the incident. She is being charged with risk of injury to a minor and is due in court on Tuesday, August 5.

Dunlevy told WFSB that it took weeks before her baby was back to normal and that she can’t stop worrying. She said in an exclusive interview with WFSB, “I don’t sleep, I get up like 20 times per night to make sure she’s breathing.”

Click here to hear the full interview.