ANNA (KADYLAK) - 10 months (7/14) - / Arrested: Foster father, Seth Jackson - Wichita, KS

Baby Dies After Being Left in Hot Car in Kansas

WICHITA, Kan. — Jul 25, 2014, 8:05 PM ET

abcnews

A 10-month-old Kansas girl died after being strapped for more than two hours inside a sweltering car, and police arrested a foster parent who said he'd forgotten about her until something on TV jogged his memory, an official said Friday.

The 29-year-old man was booked on suspicion of aggravated endangerment but has not been charged, said Lt. Todd Ojile of the Wichita Police Department. The case will be presented early next week to prosecutors.

The girl's distraught maternal grandmother, Cindy Poe of Topeka, Kansas, went to police headquarters Friday demanding to see her granddaughter's body and to find out where her other two grandchildren had been taken.

"I want answers," Poe told The Associated Press. "I want to know why my grandbaby was in that car."

The investigation found that the girl was picked up from the baby sitter around 4 p.m. Thursday and brought home, where she was "somehow forgotten" in the back seat of the car in Wichita, where temperatures were around 90 degrees. The foster parent went inside the house with a 5-year-old child who had also been with him, but left the baby strapped in the car seat in the parked car outside the house.

The other foster parent in the house at the time, his 26-year-old partner, was in the backyard when they came in. No charges are expected against him, Ojile said.

"He believed all the children were downstairs playing," Ojile said. "He did not know the child was outside."

Both realized at the same time the baby was still in the car when "something on TV" jogged their memories, Ojile said, without elaborating.

The couple then ran outside the house and found the girl inside the car, still strapped in her car seat. The car's tinted windows were all up.

Emergency dispatchers got a call at 6:41 p.m. Thursday, and the girl was pronounced dead at the scene a few minutes later.

"Both were extremely upset," Ojile said of the foster parents.

The foster couple had been trying to adopt the 10-month-old girl they had cared for nearly all her life. They also had three other foster children, ages 3, 5 and 18; and had two adopted children, ages 5 and 7. The two younger foster children were visiting other relatives at the time. The couple's two young adopted children were taken into police protective custody.

On Friday, The Kansas Department for Children and Families suspended all future child placements with its former foster care contractor, TFI Family Services, pending the outcome of an investigation. The agency's contract with the state was not renewed in 2013, but TFI had still been allowed to sponsor some licensed foster homes. The agency also ordered its foster care contractors to inspect all foster homes associated with TFI.

TFI spokesman Branden Long said the company is cooperating and does not believe there are any issues with its foster care services. It planned to issue a written response later Friday.

"I want to assure Kansans that we are doing everything we can to uphold our agency's mission to protect children," Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore said in a statement. "Children in need of care deserve safe, loving homes."

According to the nonprofit child safety group KidsAndCars.org, 18 children have died in hot cars this year in the United States, including a Georgia boy whose father is charged with murder on suspicion of intentionally leaving the 22-month-old in a hot car last month as he went to work.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based group said 10 children have died in hot cars in Kansas since 2000.



http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/baby-dies-left-hot-car-kansas-24715482

COURTESY OF THE JACKSON FAMILY

Seth Jackson holds the foster child, known as Anna and Kadylak, in a family photo. The 10-month-old died in Wichita, Kansas, after being left inside a hot car for two hours on a 90-degree day, police said Friday.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hot-cars-and-kids/wichita-foster-dad-baby-who-died-hot-car-wants-die-n164706

POLICE: 'GAME OF THRONES' REMINDED MAN BABY WAS IN CAR

AP, ROXANA HEGEMAN
Tuesday, August 05, 2014

WICHITA, Kan -- A child crying on the television show "Game of Thrones" jogged a foster parent's memory that he had left a 10-month-old girl inside a sweltering car while he and his partner smoked marijuana at their house, a police affidavit released Monday says.

Seth Jackson, 29, is charged with first-degree murder in the July 24 death in Wichita. No charges have been filed against his partner.

Police say the girl was inside the car with the windows up for more than two hours. It was around 90 degrees outside. An autopsy showed she died of hyperthermia due to heat exposure.

The affidavit says Jackson's partner told police that Jackson called that day to let him know he would be picking the 10-month-old up from the baby sitter after taking their 5-year-old adopted child to a doctor's appointment. Jackson told police that when he arrived home, he locked the car and went inside with his 5-year-old and the pizza.

Jackson's partner said he and Jackson watched one and a half episodes of "Games of Thrones" and smoked marijuana Jackson had picked up that day, according to the affidavit. The partner told police Jackson realized he had left the 10-month-old outside in the car when he heard a child crying on the TV show.

The men rushed outside, Jackson unlocked the vehicle and his partner removed the child.

The partner told investigators the girl was hot and stiff when he grabbed her from the car and carried her into the house. As he called 911, Jackson attempted CPR but could not get the child's mouth open, according to the affidavit filed by Wichita police detective Ryan Schomaker.

Officers who responded found Jackson still on the phone when they arrived, making calls and repeatedly stating, "I left her in the car, she's dead, she's dead," according to the affidavit.

Meanwhile, the girl was unresponsive and lying on her back on the couch. Firefighters moved the girl from the couch to the floor once they arrived and attempted to revive her.

Later in an interview at police headquarters, Jackson's partner told detectives he and Jackson had been foster parents to the 10-month-old girl since she was 2 weeks old. Police have not released the child's name and documents in the case only use her initials.

Although the girl died of hyperthermia, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said the first-degree murder charge was warranted because the child died during the commission of an inherently dangerous felony, aggravated endangering of a child. The case is not charged as intentional murder.

In addition to the 10-month-old, who they were trying to adopt, Jackson and his partner had five other children in their care. They had three other foster children ages 3, 5 and 18, and two adopted children ages 5 and 7. The two younger foster children were visiting other relatives at the time the 10-month-old died.

Prosecutors and Jackson's attorneys agree the circumstances are entirely different than a widely publicized case in Georgia, where a father faces murder and child cruelty charges on suspicion of intentionally leaving a 22-month-old boy inside a hot car last month as he went to work.

http://6abc.com/241510/