10-Month-Old Baby Died After Locked In Hot Car; Foster Dad Arrested
The baby girl was the foster child of two men, one of which has been arrested.
— -- A foster parent was arrested today in the death of a 10-month-old girl who had been left for hours in a hot car, according to Wichita police.
Police got a call reporting a baby left on the backseat inside a car just before 7 p.m. on Thursday.
“We arrived on scene just a little before 7 p.m. on Thursday night,” Lt. Dan East, Wichita Police Department spokesperson told ABC News. “The girl was unconscious and unresponsive.”
The child was pronounced dead minutes after paramedics arrived on the scene, according to a police report by the Wichita Police Department.
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The foster child was in the care of two men, who were questioned by the police on Thursday night. Attempts to reach the two men for comment were unsuccessful.
The foster couple had been trying to adopt the 10-month-old girl they had cared for nearly all her life. They also had three other foster children, ages 3, 5 and 18; and had two adopted children, ages 5 and 7, who were from the same biological parents as the 10-month-old girl.
"The 5-year-old and 7-year-old have been taken from the home and put in protective custody," East said.
“The 29-year-old dad picked up the girl from the babysitter and left her in the car,” East said.
“The two men were watching TV when the foster dad saw something that reminded him of the girl, and he ran outside and got the child out," East said. "They appeared really upset when we arrived on scene."
The girl's distraught maternal grandmother, Cindy Poe of Topeka, Kansas, demanded to see her granddaughter's body and her two other grandchildren who were taken away on Friday morning.
"I want answers," Poe told The Associated Press. "I want to know why my grandbaby was in that car."
Shortly before 1 a.m. Friday, police officers arrested Seth Jackson, 29, for aggravated child endangerment. The second man, 26, was not arrested. The case will be presented early next week to prosecutors.
Jackson has not yet been officially charged or arraigned.
Thursday’s highest temperature reached 96 degrees, which meant temperature could have surpassed 135 degrees in a closed car after an hour, according to The Weather Channel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.