Dad Charged With Murder After Child Dies in Overheated Car

Young Parker Scholtes from Marana, Arizona, died on July 9 after being left alone in a hot car that rose to as much as 109 degrees.

Christopher Scholtes, her father, is accused of second-degree murder and child abuse because he reportedly left the two-year-old to play video games on his PlayStation by herself. The 37-year-old man told police that he didn’t want to wake her up, so he left her asleep in her car seat. Authorities say she was in the car for three hours and in full sunlight.

Instead of the time he said he got home, footage from security cameras at nearby homes shows that Sholtes got home much earlier. In a statement to the police, Sholtes said his garage was too cluttered with gym equipment, so he left his car on the driveway.

Erika Scholtes, Scholtes’ wife, didn’t find her unconscious in the car until 4:08 pm when she got home. She was still in the car seat.

Chris Scholtes told the cops that he got to their home in the Tucson neighborhood of Marana at 2:30 p.m. and parked the car outside because the garage was cluttered with gym equipment. He said he forgot the girl was still in her car seat until his wife got home at 4 p.m. and found the horrible thing. Police checked surveillance tape that shows he arrived at the house at 12:53 p.m., leaving Parker in the hot car for more than three hours.

Erika reportedly asked Christopher where Parker was when she got home at 4:08 p.m. on the tragic day. The dad told the cops that he had left Parker with the air conditioner on, but he did say that he knew it would turn off by itself in 30 minutes.

There are new facts about how Scholtes usually acts around the couple’s three kids. The couple sent each other a text message right before Parker was rushed to the hospital, which shows the father had done it before. Their other girls, ages 9 and 5, told police that their dad would leave them alone in the car a lot.

Erika’s plea at the hearing meant that Scholtes could be freed on bail of $25,000. This was despite the prosecution’s requests that bail be set at $1 million.