Kristen Danielle Graham, Virginia babysitter charged with murder after leaving 11 month old baby and dog in hot car for more than 6 hours in 100 fahrenheit degrees after night of partying.
A 40-year-old Virginia woman has been charged with murder after having left an 11-month-old baby in a hot car, causing the child to die along with a dog in the vehicle.
Kristen Danielle Graham, 40, was charged with one felony count of murder following the September death of the child and an ensuing investigation.
The babysitter was given responsibility of 11-month-old Myrical Wicker by her 17-year-old mother for two days.
She had been alone in the car for approximately eight and a half hours, 13 News Now reported.
The child was discovered dead in a black plastic bag in the back of a car by emergency room personnel at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News.
Officials say Graham received a phone call from her friend around 1am on September 12, 2023, asking her to bring cigarettes.
Her friend couldn’t buy them herself because she was caring for an elderly person in Newport News at that time.
Graham put the child and dog in the back of the car, went to a 7-Eleven to get the cigarettes and spent some ‘considerable’ time at her friend’s place.
She then drove back to York County at 8am and left the baby and dog in the car with the windows rolled up. At around 2.30pm, Graham ‘woke up’ when she received a phone call and went out to check on the dog and baby.
Both the baby and dog were dead by that point.
Conflicting accounts
Court documents show 80-year-old Paul Kudlaty taking the deceased infant to Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in a trash bag. He is not facing charges.
Graham was arrested a short time later for felony child neglect and misdemeanor animal cruelty before having charges against her upgraded to murder following the results of an autopsy.
Graham turned herself in on Thursday to the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail, where she is currently being held without bond.
Sheriff Ron Montgomery with the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office stated Graham giving conflicting accounts of why the child and dog were left in the vehicle.
‘She would initially have us believe that she was in the vehicle along with the child and the dog for that duration of time,’ the sheriff previously said. ‘Our evidence that we have collected doesn’t support that information. We believe that she left them, went in the house, went to sleep and came back out 6 hours later.’
He said that the office was investigating if she deliberately went into the house and left them both in the car.
‘at least 100 degrees’
Added the sheriff: ‘These are not typical situations that we deal with in York County, and when you do come across the death of a child, it affects everyone — the investigators, the law enforcement people there, the EMS people that have to respond to these types of things.
‘And I can tell you that the mood of the agency today when we had a briefing on it this morning is somewhat shock and disbelief, even though we’re professionals and we have to do everything we possibly can do to do a thorough, professional investigation.’
According to Montgomery, the heat index was ‘at least 100 degrees’ while the child and the dog stayed in the car between around 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The sheriff mentioned that Graham often babysat the child of a ‘friend of a friend’s baby’.
