Children are still dying in locked, hot cars. Most instances have explanations that are innocent enough. Fatigue-induced negligence and/or a gross underestimation of how hot a metal box can get parked under the summer sun aren't excusable, mind you, but most times, do not come from a place of malice. Sadly, this is not one of those times. (Despite the perpetrator's attempts to make it appear so.)
In a report by The Washington Post, two toddlers aged 2 years and 16 months were found dead in a 2010 Honda Crosstour on May 26th. In Weatherford, Texas, temperatures reached a high of 96 degrees that day. When probed on how long the children were trapped in the sweltering car, their mother, 24-year-old Cynthia Marie Randolph said, "no more than an hour" and that the kids had somehow locked themselves in the car on their own.
On Friday, however, Randolph was arrested and charged with two first-degree felony counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury after admitting that she was the one to lock her kids in the car in order to "teach them a lesson." From The Washington Post:
At about 12:15 p.m., Randolph said she had found her children playing inside her car and ordered them to come out, police said.
“Stop your s–t,” Randolph said she told her 2-year-old daughter, according to police.
“When they refused to exit, Randolph told police she shut the car door to teach Juliet a lesson, thinking she could get herself and her brother out of the car when ready,” a probable cause affidavit for the incident stated. “The defendant went inside the house, smoked marijuana and took a nap. The defendant said she was asleep for two or three hours.”
Randolph woke to find her two children unresponsive. Before calling police, she reportedly smashed the car's window in order to make it look like an accident.
According to records, Randolph is currently held at the Parker County Jail on a bond of $200,000.