A 2-month-old baby girl tragically died after being left in an SUV outside her home for nine hours, according to California deputies.
A family member called 911 just after midnight on June 13 upon discovering the unconscious baby inside the parked SUV in Santee, as reported by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department in a news release on June 24.
Deputies determined that the baby had been in the car since the family returned home around 3 p.m. the previous day. Temperatures that day were expected to reach 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rescuers performed life-saving measures before transporting the baby to a hospital, where she later passed away, deputies said. The exact cause of her death will be determined by the county’s medical examiner, and an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
According to deputies, it is against the law in California to leave children unattended in a vehicle. They emphasized that leaving a child alone in a car, even briefly to run errands, is dangerous and illegal, whether the engine is running or not.