Shocked Florida mom finds her 10-month-old girl dead after babysitter left her ‘at least five hours’ in hot car that reached 133F
- Rhonda Jewell, 46, was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child
A horrified mother found her 10-month-old daughter in Florida after her nanny left her in a hot car that reached 133 degrees Fahrenheit for at least five hours.
The shocking incident occurred around 8am on Wednesday when Rhonda Jewell, 46, picked up the child from the child’s mother’s home in north Macclenny.
Jewell, who had cared for the girl several times since June, then drove to another residence in town where she babysat other children.
Upon arrival at the second home, Jewell left the child in the SUV as the temperature outside boiled at 98 degrees Fahrenheit.
Jewell told investigators she assumed the girl was asleep, so she entered the house and began interacting with the three other children she was babysitting, aiming to pick the child up later, but “completely” forgetting to do so.
Rhonda Jewell, 46, Jewell was charged with aggravated manslaughter after baby died from being left in a hot car for hours in northern Macclenny, Florida
It wasn’t until the child’s mother arrived to pick up her daughter around 1 p.m. that Jewell realized she had been forgotten.
Deputies discovered the child in the garage on the seat of a golf cart and began life-saving measures.
The baby’s skin felt “very hot,” deputies and rescue personnel said.
The child was taken to Fraser Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead.
Jewell was arrested and held at the Baker County Detention Center.
She made her first appearance in court on Thursday morning, where her bail was set at $25,000.
Jewell was charged with manslaughter of a child with aggravated circumstances after being accused of leaving the child unattended in a vehicle that was not moving “while the outside temperature was 98 degrees Fahrenheit and the temperature inside the vehicle reached more than 133 degrees for a period of at least 5 hours.”
Police ask people to respect the privacy of the child’s family.
The Baker County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook, “Each of us is given the gift of life every morning we wake up and every evening when we end our day, we are blessed when our families are safe and sound.
“In the blink of an eye, our world can be turned upside down. Please keep this in mind as you try to understand the tragedy that took place yesterday in our small town.’
This year, according to noheatstroke.org, 14 children have died of heat stroke in a vehicle, including five children in Florida.
The Macclenny girl is the sixth and youngest child to die in the state this year from extreme temperatures in a vehicle, reports noheatstroke.org.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 53 percent of hot car deaths are the result of forgetting a child in a car.
The end of the workweek, Thursday and Friday, have the highest death rates, and 46 percent of times a child is forgotten, their caregiver planned to drop them off at a daycare or preschool, NHTSA reports.