Home Scandal and Gossip Bentley Fowler dead: Alabama parents charged in toddler hot car death

Bentley Fowler dead: Alabama parents charged in toddler hot car death

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Dakota Fowler and Brandi Burks
Pictured, Dakota Fowler and Brandi Burks, Hodges, Alabama parents of 3 year old toddler,
Dakota Fowler and Brandi Burks
Pictured, Brandi Burks (left) and Dakota Fowler, Hodges, Alabama parents of 3 year old toddler boy, Bentley Fowler. Image via police bookings.

Brandi Burks & Dakota Fowler, Hodges, Alabama parents face manslaughter charges in hot car death of 3 year old toddler son, Bentley Fowler. 

An Alabama couple face criminal charges for the death of their 3 year old toddler son, who police said was found dead Sunday in a hot car over the weekend. The child’s death follows temperatures eclipsing the lower 90’s. 

Officers were dispatched to Hodges at around 4 p.m. amid reports of an unresponsive 3-year-old in a car. Franklin County police said in a statement that EMS attempted to resuscitate the boy, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The boy’s parents, Dakota Heath Fowler, 20, and Brandi Michelle Burks, 21, reportedly claimed they last saw their child at midnight when they put him to bed. When they woke up at 3 p.m., (w.t.f …??) they were unable to find their son and discovered him in the car, according to police.

AL.com identified the deceased toddler as Bentley Fowler.

Temperatures in Hodges reached 93 degrees Sunday. Though Fowler and Burks were arrested and charged with manslaughter, Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver described their son’s death as an accident.

‘I don’t feel there was any intent there. I think it was neglect, which sadly cost the little guy’s life,’ Shannon told AL.com.

The toddler’s body was sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, where an autopsy will be performed. Records indicate that Fowler and Burks remain jailed.

According to No Heat Stroke, Bentley Fowler is the 15th child to die in a hot car this year. In 2019, 52 children died of vehicular heatstroke.

Alabama ranks No.12 in the United States based on the number of child hot car deaths with 27 fatalities since 1995, according to KidsAndCars.

The parents are held in the Franklin County jail without bail set, records show. If convicted of manslaughter, they could face up to 20 years in prison.

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