Joseph Boatman, Hammond, Louisiana dad charged in the hot car death of his 21 month old daughter, Ansleigh Boatman after allegedly getting drunk and leaving her overnight for nine hours in hot car.
A Louisiana dad faces a second-degree murder charge after allegedly leaving his nearly 2-year-old daughter overnight in a hot car unattended for over nine hours according to authorities.
Joseph Boatman, 32, of Hammond, was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on June 8, after his 21-month-old daughter, Ansleigh Boatman died when she was left in his car overnight, according to a news release from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The tragedy happened outside a home in Madisonville, a town with a population of less than 800 people located approximately 40 miles north of New Orleans.
Joseph Boatman Louisiana dad passes out from drinking
The temperature in Madisonville peaked at 92 degrees during the time the child was left in the car and the heat index was as high as 104 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
The incident unfolded after Boatman ‘consumed multiple alcoholic beverages’ and then went to pick up his toddler daughter from a relative’s house shortly after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, the release stated.
Boatman, allegedly strapped his daughter into her car seat, went back inside the Madisonville home and for reasons not immediately clear, failed to return to the car, leaving the girl unattended, the sheriff’s office said.
More than nine hours later, circa noon, deputies were sent to the house after a family member found the toddler unresponsive in the car, authorities said.
Posted Kristen Danielle, a woman alleging to be the toddler’s mother, ‘Hi I’m the mother. Her father picked her up from his dad’s house and put her in his vehicle after work. He then went back into the same residence and went to sleep leaving her alone per the detective.’
Adding, ‘I’m in Texas, she was just on her 30 day visitation and he failed my baby.’
Responded a commentator, ’Supposedly he was drunk when her got her. My question is, why allow the child to go with him if he’s drunk??’
The temperature in Madisonville climbed to 95 degrees on Sunday; the heat index — what temperature it feels like — reached 105 degrees.
‘This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,’ Sheriff Randy Smith said in a statement. ‘When a child is left in a vehicle, especially on a day when the heat index climbs over 100 degrees, the outcome can turn deadly in a matter of minutes. This case involved compromised judgment, and the result was heartbreaking.’
The girl is the fifth child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org.
On average, 38 children die in hot cars every year in the U.S. About 88% of them are 3 years old or younger, KidsAndCars.org said.
Boatman remains in custody, with bail set at $750,000, WDSU reported.
