FL Toddler Left In Hot Car For 14 Hours Dies, Parents Charged

HOLMES COUNTY, FL — A 2-year-old girl died Tuesday after authorities said she was left inside a hot car by her parents for more than 14 hours. The parents are now facing charges, according to authorities.

Holmes County Sheriff John Tate said the death happened in Prosperity after 32-year-old Christopher McLean and 23-year-old Kathreen Adams left the toddler in a car outside their home while they were inside.

Tate said deputies arrived at the home within two minutes of receiving the 911 call. The deputies attempted life-saving measures on the little girl, but she was pronounced dead shortly after.

According to a news release by the nonprofit organization Kids and Car Safety, the girl's 4-year-old sibling also was in the car but managed to escape. The 4-year-old has been placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, authorities said.

McLean and Adams were charged with child neglect, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia after authorities searched their home, Tate said.

According to Kids and Car Safety, the girl's death was the fourth hot-car death nationwide and the second in Florida in 2023. The organization said Florida ranks second in child hot car deaths — at least 111 kids have died between 1990 and 2022.

How To Prevent Hot Car Deaths

Research conducted by No Heat Stroke founder Jan Null, an adjunct professor and research meteorologist at San Jose State University, shows that on a 70-degree day, the temperature inside a vehicle can reach 89 degrees within five minutes. Within an hour, it can reach 113 degrees.
It’s even worse on 90-degree days. Within five minutes, the temperature can reach 100 degrees; in an hour, it can reach 133 degrees.

Consumer Reports said its tests show temperatures inside cars can reach dangerous levels for children and pets within an hour. One test showed that when the temperature outside was 61 degrees, the temperature inside reached more than 105 degrees within an hour.

Young children are at a heightened risk of dying of heatstroke, and not only due to their inability to escape a hot car. A child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster than that of an adult, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Heatstroke begins when the core body temperature reaches about 104 degrees, and children can die when theirs reaches 107.

In many cases, a parent completely loses awareness that the child is in the car, according to David Diamond, professor of psychology, molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida who has studied the hot car deaths phenomenon for 15 years.

His research shows parents can forget their kids are in the car as a result of competition among the brain’s memory systems — the “habit memory” system that allows people to rotely perform routine tasks without thinking about them, and the “prospective memory” system used to plan. The habit memory system typically prevails, and the problem is particularly acute among parents experiencing sleep deprivation or stress, according to Diamond.

“Often these stories involve a distracted parent,” Gene Brewer, an Arizona State University associate professor of psychology, said in a news release. “Memory failures are remarkably powerful, and they happen to everyone. There is no difference between gender, class, personality, race or other traits. Functionally, there isn’t much of a difference between forgetting your keys and forgetting your child in the car.”

NoHeatStroke.org offers some tips to help parents and other caregivers prevent leaving children in cars during hot weather.

• Never leave a child in a vehicle unattended — even if the windows are partially open or the engine is running and the air conditioning is on.

• Make it a habit to check your entire vehicle — front and back — before locking the door and walking away. Train yourself to “Park, Look, Lock,” or always ask yourself, "Where's Baby?"

• Ask your child care provider to call if your child doesn’t show up for care as expected.

• Place a personal item such as a purse or briefcase in the back seat, as another reminder to look before you lock. Write a note or place a stuffed animal in the passenger's seat to remind you that a child is in the back seat.

• Store car keys out of a child's reach, and teach children that a vehicle is not a play area. A quarter of all hot car deaths occur because the child got into an unlocked car, not because a parent left them inside, according to the NHTSA.