Claudette Foster Hinesville, Georgia foster mother charged with the murder of Payton and Raelynn Keyes after the twin girls died of heat exhaustion in a hot car.
A Georgia foster mother has been charged with second-degree murder after three-year-old twin girls were found dead in a hot car.
Claudette Foster was charged on October 14, two weeks after Payton and Raelynn Keyes were reported missing on September 29, WSAV-TV reported.
Raelynn and Payton died inside the vehicle that was parked in the backyard of a home in the 200 block of Augusta Way in Hinesville, about 1.45pm, shortly after their foster parents called 911 to report them missing.
Temperatures had reached as high as 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 celsius) that day, according to investigators.
A police statement says autopsies determined the children died from accidental heatstroke.
Georgia law allows charging caregivers with second-degree murder when children die because of cruelty stemming from criminal negligence.
Foster is also charged with second-degree child cruelty the dailymail reports.
Hinesville police Detective Bryan Wolfe said that Foster’s ‘lack of supervision for the children allowed them to enter the vehicle and pass away’.
Of question is how Foster came to qualify as a foster parent and the vetting process the state uses. It was unclear if the woman had previous recorded mishaps.
Foster has been jailed without bond in Liberty County. It was not immediately known if she has an attorney.
‘Losing a child is the worst possible thing you could ever go through.’
Earlier this month, Skye Keyes, the twins’ biological mother expressed her heartbreak over their tragic deaths.
Keyes, said she last saw her daughters on September 27 with a caseworker.
‘It’s a nightmare. It feels like a giant nightmare,’ Keyes told WTOC. ‘I feel like we were the last ones to know our daughters died.’
Keyes and her husband would see the two girls once a week, admitting they lost custody of the girls during a difficult period of mourning the premature death of another child.
‘We got pregnant six months after we lost our first daughter in 2014,’ Keyes said. ‘She died at three weeks. We found out we were pregnant with the twins. They were born 10 weeks early.
‘We went through a lot after we lost our daughter. We got double the blessing and now they’re gone, due to someone else’s negligence.’
Adding, ‘We went through more hardship after the girls were born. Bad luck. Just one thing after another. We have two sons to stay strong for but feel like our world has been ripped apart.’
She continued, ‘Losing a child is the worst possible thing you could ever go through.’
