By Erika Hernandez
17 Jul 2024, 19:33 PM EDT
New reports on the death of a two-year-old girl in a hot car in Arizona last week revealed that The minor’s father left the little girl in the vehicle and distracted himself playing video games for at least three hours..
Christopher Scholtes, a 37-year-old father of three, said he only left little Parker Scholtes sleeping inside his 2023 Acura MDX for 30 minutes after returning home from shopping because he didn’t want to wake her up.
However, newly released court records show that he was playing video games for more than three hours, until His horrified wife, who is a doctor, came home and found the girl dead inside their car.KPLC-TV News reported.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you that?” Erika Scholtes, an anesthesiologist, scolded her husband in text messages after the July 9 tragedy, the outlet reported.
“Honey, I’m sorry. Honey, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be real,” the man replied.
How did the events occur?
Christopher Scholtes told police he arrived at his home in the Tucson suburb of Marana around 2:30 p.m. and parked his car outside because the garage was cluttered with exercise equipment.
He left the girl asleep in the car seat until his wife came home and made the terrible discovery at 4:00 pm.
But surveillance footage reviewed by police shows he arrived at the home shortly after 12:30 p.m., leaving Parker in the car in 109-degree weather for more than three hours, KPLC reported.
According to a complaint filed in the case, Christopher Scholtes “was distracted by playing his game and putting away his food.”
The couple’s two other children told police that their father regularly left the three siblings alone in the car while he was at home.
The distracted father told police he left the air conditioning on in the car for Parker, but admitted he knew it would automatically shut off after 30 minutes, the report said.
On Friday, in court, when Christopher Scholtes was charged with murder and child endangerment.His wife asked the judge to release him pending trial, calling it “a huge mistake.”
The judge set bail at $25,000 despite prosecutors requesting bail of $1 million.
Keep reading:
- North Carolina girl dies after mother leaves her in hot car on her way to work
- 11-month-old baby dies after being left in car while parents went to church in Florida
- 1-year-old boy dies after being left in hot car for nine hours