MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — It was murder when a 2-year-old girl died after hours in a hot car. That’s what Marana Police are calling the death of the young girl this week.
Police in Marana have leveled second degree murder charges against Christopher Scholtes who they say left his two year old daughter in a hot car and that girl died as a result. Arizona law says that sort of reckless behavior rates a charge of second degree murder.
Marana Police arrested Scholtes Friday morning. He was in custody until Friday night when he was released to pre-trial services without any bond requirements. The judge agreed Scholtes is not a flight risk but release conditions forbid him from being alone with his two other daughters. The family must arrange alternative daycare.
The family car has become a key piece of evidence in the murder investigation. Marana Police say when Christopher Scholtes saw his two year old daughter was asleep in the back seat, he left her there and went into the house.
He said he’d done it before, left the engine and air conditioning on, and she was fine, but on this day the car, and the air conditioning stopped.
Police say Scholtes told them he came home about 2:45 Tuesday. But surveillance cameras in the neighborhood showed the car returning closer to 12:50—a roughly two hour difference.
At 4pm, the child’s mother came home and found the girl. The mother’s a doctor. She tried to revive her daughter. Paramedics tried too and rushed the girl to Banner UMC. There, she was declared dead.
Police say cases like this touch them in a way some other cases might not.
Marana Officer Molly Metz says, “We are human, just as the rest of our community. Many of us are new parents, and we certainly do feel and share in the community's grief with this event.”
Search warrants show detectives are checking the electronics of the car. They could show when it was running, when it was parked and when the air conditioning was on.
They are checking other electronics. Police say cell phones, a laptop computer and a Play Station 5 could help document what Christopher Scholtes was doing and when he was doing it.
And detectives are checking the girl’s own iPad. They think its GPS can help establish how long she was left in the car, what she was doing while in the car, and if she was using her tablet or asleep.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
