1-year-old girl dies after being left in hot car for nearly 10 hours, deputies say

HOUSTON -- A 1-year-old girl was found dead inside a hot car after apparently being left there all day, police said.

Harris County Sheriff's deputies said they were called out around 6 p.m. Thursday to a home on Barnes Ridge Lane near Beachnut Street in Houston's Far Southwest Side.

The mother told deputies that she had three children - ages 5, 3 and 1 - and was taking all three to daycare in the morning. She apparently dropped the two older children off at daycare, but left the 1-year-old in the vehicle.

Investigators said she returned home and at some point switched cars and went to exercise. It wasn't until she went to pick up the children from daycare later that day that she was informed that she never dropped off the youngest child.

A daycare worker came back to the home with the mother to look for the child. Deputies said the worker didn't see the little girl in the car, but was ultimately found on the floorboard in the backseat. She was pronounced dead on the scene. Investigators said that the child was apparently in the car from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. with temperatures in the upper 90s. They are also looking into why there were only two car seats in the vehicle and three children.

Deputies said they will forward this case to the district attorney's office, who will then determine if the mother will face any charges or if it will go to a grand jury.

According to Kids and Car Safety, this is the 20th child to die in a hot car this year and the second in Texas.

Texas ranks No. 1 in the nation with the most child hot car deaths of any state with a total of 145 fatalities since 1991. Over 1,000 children have died in hot cars nationwide since 1990 with 2018 and 2019 being the two worst years in history.