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An autopsy report confirmed a 2-year-old girl died due to accidental heat exposure inside a hot vehicle she was left in by her father, according to the Pima County Medical Examiner.
On July 9, the child’s father left her sleeping inside a vehicle for more than three hours in the driveway of the family’s Marana home. The temperature inside the vehicle reached 108.9 degrees by the time authorities discovered her lifeless body, according to the autopsy report, which was released to The Arizona Republic on Wednesday.
The medical examiner indicated that the cause of death was environmental heat exposure and the manner of death an accident, according to the autopsy report. The report detailed the autopsy was performed on July 10, the day after the accident and was witnessed by detectives and police with Marana Police Department.
On July 12, Marana police arrested the father of the child, 37-year-old Christopher Scholtes in the death of his daughter, according to a news release.
A police investigation revealed that Scholtes left his daughter sleeping inside the vehicle with the air conditioner running because he did not want to wake her up. Scholtes acknowledged that he knew the vehicle’s engine would automatically shut off after running for about 30 minutes, according to his arrest record.
Three hours later, Scholtes’ wife was seen arriving at the home by security camera, prompting her to ask where the daughter was. Police then received a 911 call reporting the child was found unresponsive in the vehicle.
Scholtes’ two other daughters reportedly told police their father regularly left them alone in a vehicle while he “got distracted by playing his game and putting away his food,” according to his arrest record.
Text messages sent between Scholtes and his wife after the child died indicated that the father had left the children alone in a vehicle before.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you? … We’ve lost her, she was perfect,” read a text message sent to Scholtes from his wife.
Scholtes reportedly never returned to the vehicle parked in westward-facing sunlight during the three-hour period he left her inside.
Scholtes was charged with second-degree murder and child abuse. He has a preliminary hearing set for Thursday.
