Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Hot car deaths: How did Texas mom lose track of 2 toddlers?

Episode Date: May 29, 2017

A mother said her two toddlers wandered out of their Texas home with her car key. She didn’t find them locked in her car until it was too late. The 2-year-old girl and her 16-month-old brother died of extreme heat. Investigators are trying to determine how the children could have locked themselves inside the vehicle. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke examine the latest hot car death case in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. At 4 o'clock, she couldn't find them. Whenever she found them inside the car, she said one of the kids actually had gotten her cell phone in the car keys and had them in her hand and locked themselves in. It was 96 degrees outside when her mother found them. Investigators say she had to break a window to get to the children, but by the time she did that, they were already unresponsive and they were pronounced dead shortly after. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Of course, everybody's distraught.

I mean, this is horrible. It's still unclear how long the kids were stuck inside the car. It's extremely heartbreaking. And what they're trying to do is figure out how a 16-month-old and a two-year-old managed to lock themselves inside. Two children dead having been locked in a hot car as temperatures soar to nearly 100 degrees

outside. Had to be 120, 130 inside that car. A 16-month-old baby boy, a two-year-old little girl dead, say police. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. You know, Alan, after the Justin Ross Harris hot car death, where baby Cooper died inside the hot car while daddy, quote, worked inside, I thought people would never leave their kid in a hot car again. It just never ends. In this case, deputies in Parker County were called to a home near Lake Weatherford shortly just after 4 p.m. And the mother says they, quote, took off. Now let me think this thing through. A two-year-old little girl and a 16-month-old boy took off. After police searched the property, the mom found them inside the vehicle, a four-door vehicle, where she says

they locked themselves inside. The mother broke a window, found the children unresponsive, and they were pronounced dead just 33 minutes later. That is how fragile life is. Now, the Parker County Sheriff, Larry Fowler, says the case is especially heartbreaking, and it's still being investigated. Let me understand this. Alan, the Duke, Duke is with me. How did a two-year-old take off in a car?

How did that happen? I don't understand that. That is something that strikes me as the big question. You've got a two-year-old. Actually, Juliet turned two in February. Her little brother, Kavanaugh, turns, well, he's just 16 months old, just barely one and just barely walking for, what, three or four months, how do they open the door of this Honda Accord? And you open it, you get inside, and this is the trick. How do they close the door? I have grandkids who are almost that exact age, just a few months older in each case, a boy and a girl.

And I'll have them with me today. And I do think about that. They like to take my keys, but I don't even think they, being older, just a little older, could do it. But that's the question that investigators have to figure out in Parker County, Texas, about 40 miles west of Fort Worth. Could these little kids do it? That is the first question that they have to figure out. And there are many others after that. You know, after the Justin Ross Harris case, I thought the whole world got it about hot car deaths. I mean, I covered hot car deaths so many times on our show on HLM, you know, before

I launched this podcast with you. And here's the thing. Not everybody is watching cable TV. Surprise. Not everybody has time to be glued to the news. Now, you know, Alan, no offense, Alan, which is what everybody says right before they say something extremely offensive. But no offense, Alan. But, you know, TV and journalists always think everybody's watching that their stories are the center of the universe. Well, they're not.

No, because they're on Facebook. People still don't know this whole hot car phenomena that if you have a child sitting in a car that's 80 degrees inside the car, it's 100 degrees. In this case, it was 96 degrees. But I want to get back to the fact that she says the children took off in the car. What? She says they took off from the room they were playing in. Didn't take off in the car. She says that they were still in the car in the driveway.

And in fact, I've seen the pictures of where the car was sitting. It was in the driveway of the house. The house is about a two bedroom, 1500 square foot family home sitting on a couple of acres in sort of a rural area, a little loop road there near a pond. This is the other thing. If you look at the aerial view of where this happened, there is a pond about 50 yards away from where these kids died in the car. If the car didn't get them, the pond might have. I would never leave little toddlers toddling around in a yard near a pond. That's another no-no. Oh, Alan, you know, how many stories have I covered where the babysitter, the dad, the mom, somebody falls asleep. They can't

find the children. And of course, they're drowned in a pond. But you know what? I remember when the twins were little, and sometimes now, Alan, when they were really little, one would wake up at 1230, one at 130, one at three, and one at five. And at 5 o'clock, they'd both be up. I would just be up from that point on. And I can remember the moment I was under a two-book deadline. I was doing Swift Justice, which was a syndicated show, the CNN HLN show, and had the children. I was literally seeing stars in my day, my daylight hours. I was seeing stars. I was so tired. And when I remember though, that period of time, you know,

it lasted well over, you know, it was a couple of years. I wanted to just lay down and sleep so badly. I get it, but I wouldn't let myself because I was so afraid something would happen. They were so delicate. Remember, Lucy was just two pounds. John David was five pounds. And they both had all these health issues from being so premature. I was so afraid, you know, that anything could claim their lives. But I remember all of these stories where parents are just so tired, they take a nap, they wake up, the child

is gone. Now, in this case, as you just correctly said, investigators in the Parker County Sheriff's Office come respond to the home in Lake Weatherford. The mother says she had been checking on the children periodically, that the tots had been playing in a back room throughout the day before they, quote, took off. And you're right. She did not say take off in the car. She said took off, left the home. Last year in Texas alone, seven children died in hot cars. That's including two in North Texas, not far from where this was. So that's the context of this. What else do we know?

It was about 4.30 in the afternoon. It was during the first heat wave of this summer season that's coming on us now. And it was 96 degrees outside so it did not take long for these children to be dead or at least near death i wonder what heat the car got up to probably you know had to be over 100 for sure if it was 96 outside you know this two little two-year-old little girl, she just had her birthday in February. Yeah. She was just barely two years old. Now, see, you were telling me about a hot car death in Chickamauga, where the mom or the grandmother was not charged.

She was charged. What happened? Chickamauga, Georgia, a lovely area in northwest Georgia. This is a grandmother, 48 years old, Barbara Pemberton. And this just happened in the last year. She was babysitting her granddaughter and one-year-old Shadow Braxton Pate had her in the car seat and it was in January. So you wouldn't think hot car death, right? Well, she had the heat on and she went to visit a friend and she left her car running while she went inside to visit her friend now this grandmother who by the way is just 48 years old and that's way early

for a grandmother if you ask me she went inside and i remember this forgot about the kid how long was she in there about five hours what yeah no i mean if you had said if you had said 30 minutes to me that would be stretching this is horrible so she pleaded guilty to second degree murder this is in walker county superior court in northwest georgia what did she get 10 years probation okay well i disagree with that five hours i i kind of thought you were where she said she went in and she was doing her friend's hair or the friend was doing her hair? Yeah. It's all coming back to me.

To hay with the hair. You don't leave the baby in the car for five hours and then get straight probation. What were they thinking? According to investigators, one of the friends at one point said, don't you need to go out and check on the kid? And she apparently ignored it, allegedly. Well, not allegedly she's entered a guilty plea she's on her way to probation to probation office well hey i'd take straight probation i haven't even done anything of course she took it so i'll take

that right now well i feel like sometimes i'm on probation with you but that's a different issue no no i'm putting you in lockdown, friend. Yes. Now, what about this one? I remember this one, and it really bugged me. A mother of a two-year-old Ohio girl died in this family SUV while she went to work. Now, she was an assistant principal. Okay? Her name was Nestle Rhodes Slaby.

And she was an assistant principal at an Ohio middle school. She's on her way to work. She realized it was too early to drop her tot, so she stopped to buy donuts for her friends at school and says she was distracted by the change in her routine and completely forgot her tot was asleep in the back of the car. And that was it. Cecilia was in the back of the car when her mom backed up to the school entrance, and it's all recorded on school surveillance camera. She unloads the donuts, walks right by the baby in the back seat a half a dozen times, parks her car, goes into school 7 a.m. Eight hours later, somebody else discovers Cecilia the tot dead.

They call 911. The temperature was around 100 degrees, and it probably reached 140 degrees in the car. Okay. No charges were filed at all. Why? Why? Because she's like a well-educated white lady? I don't know.

Why is she different than everybody else? I don't understand that. And not only that, she was on paid leave from her position as an assistant principal. Where are the child neglect laws? I thought we had those. That's in Ohio. That was at least felony neglect. Now, I mean, then there is the mother of all hot car deaths, Justin Ross Harris.

And in his case, he absolutely should have been charged. Remember, Justin Ross Harris left baby Cooper in the back of his car. He had the baby that morning. He drove to Chick-fil-A. They went inside. The baby was alert, smiling, eating. I drove the route myself, Alan, and it was less than two minutes from the Chick-fil-A. I've driven the same route.

I've eaten at the same Chick-fil-A, went to the same parking lot he's been to as well. It's very, very close. And he had to take multiple turns. And he had the kind of car seat, a rear facing, where like, if you turn to your right, you see the baby, you see the baby's head in the rear view window. And you see it when you turn to make a turn when you physically turn. He leaves the baby in the car seat, goes back to the car at lunchtime under the pretext of buying a light bulb. Finally, at 5 o'clock, he takes off driving and several minutes later jumps out and puts on the big drama that the baby has passed away in the car. It was all a lie. He was sexting all these underage girls and, oh, he had a whole double life going on.

He let the baby die. And if it wasn't malice murder, intentional, it was felony murder, which is a felony when a death occurs. And that would be felony child abuse, child neglect, and a death occurred. Bam! I thought he should have gotten the death penalty. And by the way, he did get life in prison plus, I think, 32 years, so he'll be there forever. Let's hope. The sex charges against him,

by the way, have more recently been dropped. They decided no reason to prosecute those. But Justin Ross Harris is a different case than most of these hot card deaths that we see. Yeah, you're right. It is different. It was a little bit more clear cut, and they really have the goods on this guy, and he was convicted. But in this case of this grandma in Chickamauga, Georgia, or let's say these parents in Texas, the initial reaction when you hear about your neighbor's kids

dying in the car. There are several. One is, oh, my God, what a tragedy for the family and the community and those children. But number two is, okay, did the parents do it intentionally? In this case, I've not heard any indication of that, that it was anything intentional. I've been researching as best I could the family. They've been in that community a while for I could the family. They've been in that community a while for whatever that's worth. They've lived in that house for decades and the grandma apparently lived in the house the paternal grandma did. The dad, no criminal record except for

oh my god he drove without a seat belt once. Hey, hey, hey, hey, no OMG on crime stories. Don't get him mad at us to top it all off go ahead that's true so there's nothing there's there are no none of those red flags here the investigation is early in parker county texas the autopsy the cause of death pending we we know how they died i guess manner of death is that what you would say we know the manner of death that was a hot car death two of them but the exact details it's going to take a little while i think what you're saying or trying to say in your hollywood style of many many words carolton georgia is that is that you think it was unintentional i'm hoping it was unintentional because it's just hard for me. If you look at the video and the pictures of this house, these kids did not lack for toys.

The garage is filled with the big wheel and the swing sets in the yard and everything. They went, one or both of these parents and the grandparents were all out for these little toddlers. My belief as a granddad is that these kids were the center of that family's world. Okay, can I tell you something? I agree with you. I know you're shocked. I am. I agree with you. I've studied and studied it as well.

I do not think this was intentional. But, and that's a big but, the law is the law, and there are two dead bodies, and if it was, and I don't know that it was, but if it was neglect, then somebody has to go to jail. I hate to put it to you like that because I do believe it was unintentional. But if, repeat, if it was neglect, like, for instance, if the children had been gone for four hours, that, in my mind, is neglect.

If they had been gone, she realized they were gone for 30 minutes, you know, you go back and check on your children. Then you come up, you might start supper. You might do some chores. You might do some work on your computer. You go back and 30 minutes later, they're gone. That doesn't sound like neglect to me. All right. They're playing in the back room. why should you be suspicious? Four hours, yeah, neglect. Three hours, neglect. Under that, it starts getting very gray to me. So I don't know all the facts.

But here's the thing. There's no good outcome, Alan. And I've argued this to many a jury. I don't want people to go to jail. I certainly do not want this mom, if this was unintentional and it was not neglect, I don't want her behind bars because she's suffering the worst pain I can imagine losing your children. But if she neglected them for an extended period of time, that is child neglect. And there's no way around it, Alan. Yes. I think we're in agreement on this one today. And I think we're probably...

Dang, that is a bitter pill to swallow. Yeah. You know, I'm so afraid sometimes when I'm tired from working, I will actually go lay down. If the twins are reading their books or they're on their iPads, I will go lay down between them. And I'll say to one, okay, put your foot on me so I can feel you. And they're nine. But I'm just afraid. You know?

I'm so afraid. It's just so fragile. They're so fragile, Alan. So where does it stand right now, Alan? The investigation is just starting up. The autopsy report is incomplete at this point. The sheriff says they're not going to say much about it while they're doing the investigation.

This is another one of these Parker County, small rural areas just like down the road 60 miles in Midlothian where Missy Beavers was murdered. See, that investigation is taking a long time. I don't think we're going to hear anything really quick on this one. What do you do as far as forensics? Where do you go as a prosecutor? You walk to this crime scene. Well, what I would do if I were investigating it, I would try to establish when was the last time the mom checked on the children.

If it had been, you know, 20 minutes and then she started looking for them and it took her an hour or so to find them and then it was too late. If it had been one hour since she checked on them, I still, that doesn't shriek to me that it is neglect. I've got an idea. But I don't know how you establish that. Maybe the grandma's in the home. I don't know. I got an idea. What? One thing we have been told is that the cell phone, the mom's cell phone was inside the car with the keys that she's saying the daughter took the cell phone in. Brilliant.

Let's see if any indication from that. When's the last time the mom used the cell phone in. Brilliant. Let's see if any indication from that. When's the last time the mom used the cell phone? I got another problem, though. That's brilliant, actually, Alan. And you may be able to actually ping the movement or track the movement of the car. I'm not sure about that, but you may be able to. But here's another thing.

When you said car keys, where were the car keys? Where did the baby get the car keys? And am I supposed to believe the baby snuck the car keys, went and got in the car and drove the car? And I mean, that's a lot to take in. And you know what? I want to believe that. Now, let's clarify this. They didn't drive the car. They had the keys and the cell phone, and they locked the doors. And it was 96 degrees, and that's what happened. Oh, I see. Okay, see, I thought the car, the reason she couldn't find them is because the car was in a different location. No.

What you see is, if you look at the video that the local reporter shot from the roadway, is you see glass from the broken passenger side front window in the driveway right where the car was parked, which was only a few feet away from the house. And I've looked carefully at the area. What took so long to find him? What was she doing? That's the question. That's maybe he thought they were out playing and was not. She didn't say out playing she said in the back room because like i say i would never let my grandkids of this age go out and play right near a pond we've been through that already so they see the pictures i was seeing it looks like the car there's trees over it so i thought it had gone down a hill no this is the this is the yard it's a two acre lot i've done all the real estate checking i know all about this property it was in the yard in the car if it's right beside

very close very close before i move on i just want to talk to you about this texas mom who left her children in a hot car so she could get a manicure and allegedly shoplift. You know about that one? That's in a Walmart in South Austin. Two children, 21 months and 3 years old, left alone in a hot vehicle. And the mom, Raquel Perez, on surveillance video, leaving the car and going inside. She walked out of the car and returned and went to the nail salon. Then she proceeded to shoplift from Walmart, according to police.

Over an hour later, the children in the vehicle is about 100 degrees inside. I mean, it just, that's how it happens right there. That's how it happens. 100 degrees and people in the parking lot heard crying and called 911.

So this is how it happens. She's in getting her nails done and allegedly shoplifting. Now that's a different story out of Austin. And today we're talking about this mom who had been checking on the children who were in a back room. They apparently got out, got into the car and locked themselves in. But I got to figure out logistically, Alan, how long it took them to actually pass away. And that will add to the time factor as to how long it was that she didn't check on them. Well, you'll never get me Googling how long does it take a child to die in a hot car.

I'll never Google that. Not after Mr. Harris did that and it showed up in his trial. Hey, there was a lot more than that against Justin Ross Harris. Yeah, there was. All I can say is, little Cooper, rest in peace. Okay, Crime Stories, Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.