CURTIS and VIRGINIA MARKLEY - 5 and 4 yo - Springdale AR

SPRINGDALE, Ark.—The mother of two children found dead in the trunk of
the family car last summer has been arrested in connection with the incident.
Katrina Markley, 25, turned herself in to Springdale police
Monday. A warrant had been issued Nov. 30, seeking Markley for two
misdemeanor counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor.
Curtis Markley, 5, and Virginia Markley, 4, were found in the
trunk of Katrina Markley’s car on June 15, dead of apparent heat stroke.
The warrant wasn’t issued until November because of delays in
subpoenaing phone and computer records and completing reports at the
Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock, where the bodies were sent for
autopsy, said Sgt. Shane Pegram of the Springdale police.
The misdemeanor charge implies Katrina Markley’s
inattentiveness caused harm to her children, but without malicious
intent. State crime lab autopsies are standard procedure in unattended
or suspicious deaths.
Katrina Markley told Detective Matt Ray the two children had
gone to a neighbor’s house about 1 p.m. that afternoon, then to another
neighbor’s about 3 p.m., according to the arrest warrant affidavit.


Both neighbors, however, said the two hadn’t been at their
houses. Other neighbors said Curtis and Virginia were outside,
unsupervised, for most of the afternoon.


At some point, they apparently crawled into the trunk of the
2000 Chevrolet Malibu and shut the lid. The car wasn’t equipped with a
safety release inside the trunk.
Curtis and Virginia played in the car often, their grandmother told police.
Katrina Markley called police around 4 p.m. to report them
missing after another child came to the door asking to see them. By the
time police arrived, grandmother Deborah Stueart had found Curtis and
Virginia unresponsive in the trunk.
Katrina Markley admitted she had been on the computer most of
the day, according to Ray’s affidavit. That was confirmed by a witness
who was chatting online with her that afternoon, Pegram said.
Markley was booked and released on the misdemeanor warrant.
She’ll be arraigned in district court Jan. 19.
Christopher Markley, the childrens’ father, was out of town on business at the time.
Nobody answered the door Wednesday at the duplex on Sage Street
in East Springdale where the incident occurred. There was also no
answer at a home on Kasey Avenue that Markley’s arrest record lists as
her current address. The Malibu wasn’t at either location.

It's been just over a year since Katrina Markley's two young children
were found dead in the trunk of her car at their family home in
Springdale. We now know what sentence she'll be serving for her
involvement.

Katrina Markley was sentenced to six months in jail with work release,
and a $2,000 fine. Markley was accused of chatting with man on an adult
website, while her two children were trapped in the trunk of a hot car.
A neighbor who was there that day says it's tough to say whether justice has been served.

It's been over a year, but Maria Holguin clearly remembers the day her two young neighbors died.

"When I got home, the neighbors were out and there were policemen around
and my son told me that the kids from across the street had died, that
they were in the back of the car."

4 year old Virginia Markley and 5 year old Curtis Markley were found
dead in the trunk of their mother Katrina Markley's car, parked in front
of the family's home.

"They used to be around here," Maria says. "They used to come over and
watch the birds right here and they would come to the bird feeding place
and they would see them playing and all that."

Yesterday Katrina Markley plead guilty to two counts of third degree
endangering the welfare of a minor in Washington County Circuit Court.
She was sentenced to 6 months of work release and given a $2,000 fine.

Police say a witness contacted the department saying she was chatting
with him through an adult "swingers" website and prosecutors argued her
neglect lead to the death of her children.

Deputy Springdale city attorney Amber Roe worked Markley's case. She
says she pushed for the guilty plea instead of going to trial.

"I wanted to make sure that she plead guilty to the charges," Roe says.
"That was important to the state. Something bad happened and she needed
to answer for it."

But Maria says losing a child is worse than any sentence.

"I think that she already lost her kids and they're not coming back
whatever she does or whatever she pays. I mean what's done is done."

Because Markley is a first offender, the case will be wiped from her
record after her sentence has been served. Markley will report to jail
this Friday.