Father charged with murder after 2-year-old is left in car during 109-degree heat wave for 3 hours, police say
An Arizona man was arrested and charged with murder, accused of leaving his 2-year-old daughter in the car outside the family's home for three hours when temperatures climbed to 109 degrees, authorities said.
An Arizona man was arrested and charged with murder, accused of leaving his 2-year-old daughter in the car outside the family's home for three hours when temperatures climbed to 109 degrees, authorities said.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, was arrested Friday and booked at the Pima County Adult Detention Center on second-degree murder and child abuse charges, Marana police said in a news release.
Scholtes told police that when he arrived home Tuesday afternoon, his daughter was asleep in her car seat and he did not want to wake her, the release says. It says he said he left her inside the car seat with the vehicle running in the driveway and the air conditioner turned on.
He then went into the home, police said.
The girl's mother came home shortly afterward, police said, and found the toddler in the vehicle. The car was no longer running, and the air conditioner was off, authorities said.
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