The girl is alleged to have been left alone in the car for up to three hours while temperatures in Marana, Arizona reached 42C. Image / Inside Edition
The girl is alleged to have been left alone in the car for up to three hours while temperatures in Marana, Arizona reached 42C. Image / Inside Edition
A 2-year-old girl died after she was allegedly left in a hot car by her father for three hours while he played video games indoors.
Police said Christopher Scholtes, who has been charged with first-degree murder, left his daughter in a hot car and was “distracted” inside the house.
A video published by Inside Edition, a US news website, shows police trying to save the girl, who had been left in the car because she was sleeping, her father claimed.
In the footage, Scholtes can be seen holding his head in his hands and dropping to his knees as police fought to revive the toddler, who has not been named.
On Thursday he was charged by a grand jury in Arizona with first-degree murder after police said he went inside the house and “got distracted by playing his [video] game and putting his food away”. Police removed a PlayStation from the home as evidence.
The girl is alleged to have been left alone in the car for up to three hours on July 6, when temperatures at their home in Marana, Arizona, reached 42C.
Scholtes said he did not want to wake his daughter after a car journey and had left her inside the vehicle with the engine and air conditioning running.
The 37-year-old father told police he arrived home at 2.30pm, and his wife had arrived at 4pm.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, broke down when police arrived at his home. Photo / Inside Edition
However, police detectives said local surveillance footage revealed he actually left her alone at 12.53pm, while local prosecutors said he knew the car’s engine and air conditioning would shut off after 30 minutes.
Video footage “does not show Christopher checking on his vehicle or daughter during this timeframe”, said a complaint by the Pima County Attorney’s Office.
It said Scholtes’ wife asked about the girl when she returned to their home, and he realised she was in the car.
Police said Scholtes's wife asked about the girl when she returned home, and Scholtes realised she was still in the car. Image / Inside Edition
‘Unresponsive in the back seat, still strapped in’
He discovered her “unresponsive in the back seat, still strapped [in] her child restraint system,” the filing said.
Scholtes was arrested on July 12 on a lesser charge of second-degree murder last month, but the charge was later upgraded - suggesting prosecutors believe her death may have been intentional. He pleaded not guilty in court.
Detectives said the couple’s two other children, aged 9 and 5, told police he “had left all three children alone in [the] vehicle regularly”.
