Father Charged in Toddler’s Hot Car Death
An Arizona father is facing upgraded charges of first-degree murder and child abuse after allegedly leaving his 2-year-old daughter to die in a hot car while he played video games.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, has been indicted by a grand jury for the July 9th death of his daughter, Parker Scholtes.
The medical examiner reported the toddler’s body temperature had reached 108.9°F when first responders arrived.
Police say Scholtes left Parker unattended in the family’s SUV for over 3 hours while he was inside the home playing on a PlayStation.
Surveillance footage showed Scholtes arrived home around 12:53pm, but Parker was not found unresponsive until around 4:16pm, when the car’s interior temperature had reached 109°F.
Scholtes initially told police he had left Parker in the car with the air conditioning running, claiming she was there for less than an hour.
However, his two other children, ages 9 and 5, told investigators that their father routinely left all three kids alone in the vehicle.
The children said Scholtes was distracted by a video game and putting away food when Parker was forgotten in the car.
Scholtes’ wife, Erika, a doctor at the hospital where Parker was pronounced dead, found her daughter unresponsive in the car.
She had previously warned Scholtes about leaving the kids unattended, texting him “I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you” as Parker was rushed to the hospital.
Christopher replied “Babe I’m sorry! How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real.”
Despite the upgraded charges, Erika Scholtes asked the judge to release her husband on bail so he could “start the grieving process” with the family.
The judge agreed to release Scholtes until his next hearing on Thursday.
