JENNINGS, La. (TCN) — A 32-year-old woman was arrested last week after she left her 10-month-old daughter in the car for 90 minutes as the interior reached nearly 150 degrees.
On Tuesday, Aug. 13, at around 4 p.m., the Jennings Police Department received a call from medical officials Ochsner Hospital, who said a woman brought her daughter in and said the girl had been in a hot car for a long time. Doctors managed to find a pulse, and she was in critical condition. Jennings Police said the mother “indicated she was called in to work and inadvertently left the child in the car while she was inside.”
Jennings Police Chief Danny Semmes told KPLC-TV the girl’s temperature was 109 degrees when she was brought to the hospital. The infant died at approximately 11 p.m. on Aug. 14.
Semmes initially said investigators initially believed the car temperature was “in excess of 120 degrees.” The exterior temperature was reportedly around 93 degrees with a heat index of 106 degrees.
According to KPLC, detectives concluded the inside of the car reached between 140 and 150 degrees during the period of time the child was left in there.
Jefferson Davis Parish Jail records show the mother, Hannah Cormier, was arrested Sunday, Aug. 18, on charges of second-degree murder and cruelty to juveniles. Her bond was set at $1 million.
Semmes urged parents to always check their cars for their kids before they get out, saying, “You have to be conscious of their safety and whereabouts at all times. If you can remember to put your seat belt on, it’s second nature when you get into the car, you reach over to put your seat belt on. Glance in the back seat to make sure your kids are or aren’t in the back seat.”