California mother of 2 year old baby girl, June Love Agosto is in custody pending charges after leaving child in hot car to go drinking only to die from heat related exposure.
The mother of a 2-year-old girl who died after being left in a car – with the heater on and the windows closed for more than five hours while she drank with a friend nearby – has been detained by authorities.
June Love Agosto was found burned and unconscious Sept. 22 inside a vehicle in West Carson, Torrance, California, with a temperature of 107.5 degrees, KTLA5 reports.
After first telling officials she left the child alone for only a few minutes while she knocked on a baby sitter’s door, the child’s mother, who hasn’t been publicly identified, ultimately admitted that was not the case, according to the coroner’s report.
The toddler’s 34 year old mom, told cops she left her daughter alone in the hot car around 11:30 p.m. Sept. 21 and then got into a friend’s vehicle nearby to drink.
Prior to leaving the child alone, the woman said she turned on the car’s heater and placed a blanket on her daughter’s lap so she wouldn’t get cold according to a Los Angeles County Coroner’s report. Temperatures at the time were just on 70F (21C).
Instead of returning to the car, the mother said she fell asleep only to wake up at about 5 a.m.
When she checked on June, ‘vomit was present on her shirt and in the car seat’ and her skin was peeling, according to the report.
‘(The mother) placed her on the grass and sprayed her with the water hose in an attempt to cool her down,’ the report said.
Paramedics took the girl — who had burns on her face, chest and arms — to the hospital but she couldn’t be saved.
‘June Love was a beautiful baby, she deserved a good life. She deserved to grow up, go to school,’ the girl’s grandmother Helen Hernandez told Fox11.
Her godmother, Jessica Peterson-Burns, said the family was ‘broken’ and ‘we just need prayers.’
An autopsy was performed, but her cause of death was yet to be determined pending the results of further forensic tests. The girl’s death was determined to likely be an accident.
But there’s more.
Child’s mother history of drug addiction and arrests:
The mother told investigators she used to be addicted to drugs but had been through rehab. She had another child, now 9, taken away from her due to neglect six years ago, investigators said.
The child was taken during a drug bust in which the mother and a man were arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine for sale, operating a drug factory, and risk of injury to a minor in Connecticut, the Norwich Bulletin reported.
Formal charges were pending against the mother People reported.
A fund was established online to help the family with funeral expenses.
