Juana Perez-Domingo leaves Jocelyn Mendez Florida 2 yr old girl to die in a hot car after forgetting to drop her off at a Homestead daycare.
A Florida woman has been charged in the death of a 2-year-old toddler girl left in a hot car for hours after forgetting to bring her to daycare, authorities say.
Juana Perez-Domingo, 43, was being paid $40 a week to take the infant to daycare when she allegedly forgot Jocelyn Maritza Mendez in the vehicle for seven hours Friday, when temperatures hit 96 degrees, WPLG reported.
Police said Perez-Domingo, who is not a licensed driver, was supposed to drop off the child at daycare in Homestead that morning.
But Perez-Domingo brought Jocelyn to her home first since the childcare center was not open yet after having picked up the girl that morning just on 6.30am.
Perez-Domingo said that she then ‘got distracted’ and went inside her home, only returning to the van seven hours later, the Miami Herald reported.
‘She killed my girl,’
The child’s mother says she get off work at 3 p.m. and called Perez-Domingo twice before she finally picked up the phone to tell her the tragic news.
‘She killed my girl,’ Joselyn’s mother told NBC Miami. ‘I don’t know what to do.’
Instead of calling 911, Perez-Domingo brought the deceased toddler to her mother’s house, authorities said.
Perez-Domingo was taken to jail early Saturday on a charge of aggravated manslaughter of a child. Bond was set at $ 50,000 with no attorney listed for the woman.
An autopsy has been ordered to determine the toddler’s official cause of death, police said.
Perez-Domingo also allegedly placed the girl in a seat belt instead of a car seat, WPLG reported.
Of note, Perez Domingo was found not to be in possession of a driver’s license along with her transportation services being off the books. Not immediately clear is if the woman ferried other children.
According to kidsandcars.org, 26 children in the United States have died after being left inside of a hot car in 2021. In 2019, there were 53 hot car deaths.
