11-year-old girl with special needs dies in hot car: cops
Culled from New York Post
The girl was found in the blue Ford Expedition (left).Victoralcorn.com
An 11-year-old girl with special needs died on Tuesday when her mother left her inside a sweltering hot car after they returned from a shopping trip, cops and neighbors said.
The girl was with her mother and two siblings when the mother pulled into the driveway of their Suffolk County home and went inside — leaving the one child inside their Ford Expedition, according to police
“After returning home, the girl’s mother went inside believing all of the children were out of the car,” according to a statement by Suffolk County police.
“Sometime later, the mother could not locate the 11-year-old girl and checked inside of the car where she found the girl. The mother carried the 11-year-old girl inside the house and called 911.”
Loved ones and first responders performed CPR at around 3:45 p.m., officials said. She was taken to Stony Brook Hospital where she was pronounced dead, Suffolk County cops said.
“It’s a tragedy,” Lt. Kevin Beyrer said. “It’s similar to a drowning. It’s something that doesn’t happen every day. It’s an unspeakable tragedy.
One neighbor said the little girl was non-verbal, special needs.
The high temperature in Coram was 92 on Tuesday, with humidity making it feel more like 101.
“Sweetheart, absolute angel. Just the sweetest little baby girl,” neighbor Carmela Parlato said of the young victim.
Another neighbor, Dona Heester, said she can’t fathom how the little girl could have been left alone by parents who are the “nicest people you would ever want to know.”
“She was a very attentive mother. She was on her children like a hawk – you wouldn’t find a better set of parents,” Heester said.
“I’ve known them for 20 years and she never left her children alone. And if she couldn’t make it home and the bus came she’d call me up and ask me ‘Could the kids come over here?’ Sure.”
Heester added: “Her house is armed with cameras, she knows everything that goes on for her family, inside and outside.
