Child dies after being left in hot car for hours as father forgets babysitter drop-off
A young child tragically died after being left in a hot car for several hours in Tennessee on Monday afternoon (August 12) because their father forgot to drop the child off at the babysitter.
Timothy Paul Blackdeer, who is now facing charges for reckless homicide and aggravated child abuse or neglect, was desperately driving with the infant in his arms when he was pulled over by patrol officers.
Emergency crews tried to revive the infant, but the child was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Police say during the incident, they learned that the child, who was found with a body temperature of 41C, had been left unattended in the SUV for most of the day while their father went to work at a construction site.
According to the investigation, the day began like any other for Blackdeer, who woke up around 5am, and prepared his three children to be dropped off at a babysitter's home in Athens, Tennessee, approximately 10-15 minutes from their home. After dropping off two of the children, Blackdeer briefly spoke with the babysitter before calling his wife and then heading to his job at a construction site at Collegedale Academy Middle School.
Unbeknownst to him, his infant daughter remained in the car as he parked at the site, which required a 10-minute walk uphill from his vehicle. Throughout the day, Blackdeer did not return to his car, as his breaks were too short to make the trip.
Around noon, he left the site with his boss to visit a nearby gas station, but the infant remained unnoticed in the vehicle. It wasn’t until 3pm, when Blackdeer received a call from his wife asking about the child's whereabouts, that he realised the terrible mistake. Rushing back to his car, he found his daughter unresponsive.
The child's mother, who was later interviewed at the hospital, revealed that she had prepared the children for the babysitter that morning but left before they were taken. At 6.18am, she received a text from the babysitter noting that only two children had been dropped off, but she assumed the infant had stayed home with their older daughters.
It wasn’t until later in the day, after calling home, that she learned the infant was not there and immediately contacted Blackdeer.
This is the third case of its kind in recent weeks in the US. In June, three-year-old Charlotte Jones died after being left in the backseat of her father’s car. Earlier in July, a father in Arizona allegedly played video games while his two-year-old daughter was left in a scorching hot car for over three hours, leading to her tragic death.