10-month-old dies after being left in hot car, Louisiana police say. Now, mom charged
UPDATE: A Louisiana woman accused of leaving her baby in a hot car has been charged with murder, police said.
Hannah Faith Cormier, 32, was arrested Sunday, Aug. 18 on charges of second-degree murder and child cruelty in the death of her 10-month-old daughter, booking records show.
“It’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of people to interview, and a lot of data to recover forensically,” Jennings Police Chief Danny Semmes told KPLC. “Those were the things that led us to charge her with second-degree murder rather than negligent homicide.”
Cormier remained in custody on a $1 million bond as of Tuesday, online records show.
The original story is below.
A baby girl left inside a hot car for more than an hour has died, Louisiana police told news outlets.
The 10-month-old died Wednesday, Aug. 14, one day after she was brought to a hospital in critical condition, KLFY reported, citing the Jennings Police Department.
The child’s mother told police she was called into work Tuesday but couldn’t get a hold of her babysitter, according to KPLC. So, she drove to work and inadvertently left her baby in the back seat.
The woman said her child was in the car for one and a half hours, police said in a news release. She rushed her baby to a hospital, and the police were called.
“Detectives and officers responded to the hospital where we were advised that the baby was brought in with a temperature of 109 degrees,” Police Chief Danny Semmes told KPLC.
Temperatures in Jennings reached 95 degrees on Tuesday with a low of 77, according to AccuWeather. The National Weather Service also issued a heat advisory for much of southwest Louisiana on Aug. 16, with “heat index values up to 111 expected.”
“It’s a tragic situation, my heart goes out to the baby and the family,” Semmes said, according to KATC. “It just takes a second to look in the back seat ... We’ve all learned the habit of making sure we have our cell phone, we can make sure our children aren’t in the car.”
Authorities haven’t said if charges are expected.
McClatchy News reached out to the Jennings Police Department for more information Aug. 16 and was awaiting a response.
Hot car deaths
Hot car deaths are most common in the summer, but they can happen at any time, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The administration said about 40 children die from heatstroke every year because they were either left or got trapped inside a car.
“Leaving a window open is not enough — temperatures inside the car can rise almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit within the first 10 minutes, even with a window cracked open,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
If you see a child alone in a vehicle, officials said you should check to see if the child is responsive and if not, call 911 immediately.
Jennings is about a 90-mile drive west from Baton Rouge.
This story was originally published August 16, 2024 at 11:59 AM.