‘Distracted’ dad charged with murder after daughter, two, dies in 109F car – as his wife’s disturbing texts revealed
HARROWING details have emerged about the death of a toddler who was left alone in a sweltering car for hours by her dad.
Two-year-old Parker Scholtes from Marana, north of Tucson, Arizona died on July 9 after being left to sleep in a car that reached temperatures of around 109 degrees.
Her father, Christopher Scholtes faces charges of second-degree murder and child abuse after he allegedly left her alone to play on his Play Station.
The 37-year-old told cops that he left his daughter asleep in her car seat inside the vehicle as he did not want to wake her, according to a criminal complaint seen by the Daily Mail.
Scholtes claimed he left her in the family’s SUV for about half an hour after he arrived home around 2:30 pm.
However, prosecutors allege that she was in the vehicle for around three hours and was in direct sunlight.
Footage taken from surveillance cameras at neighboring properties shows that Sholtes returned home around 12:53 pm rather than the time he claimed.
While he normally parks in the garage, he told police that exercise equipment was in the way so he left the vehicle on the driveway.
It was not until Scholtes’ wife, Erika returned home at 4:08 pm that she asked where her daughter was and found her unresponsive in the vehicle “still strapped in her child restraint system.”
The toddler was rushed to the hospital where Erika works as a doctor, but she was declared dead despite resuscitation efforts en route.
Her father was taken into custody on July 12 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
‘WE’VE LOST HER’
Now, new details have emerged about Scholtes’ pattern of behavior with the couple’s three children.
The complaint details a text message exchange between the couple at the time Parker was being rushed to the hospital which suggests the father had done it before.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car, How many times have I told you?” the 35-year-old said to her husband.
“Babe, I’m sorry!” he replied.
“We’ve lost her, she was perfect,” the grieving mother said after her daughter’s death was confirmed.
“Babe our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be real,” Scholtes replied.
The couple’s other daughters aged nine and five, allegedly told police that their father would regularly leave them alone in the car.
At the time of Parker’s death, Scholtes ‘got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away’ the siblings told cops, according to the complaint.
It further alleged that the father told cops he left the AC running while his daughter was sleeping in the car but that from experience, he knew it shut off automatically after 30 minutes.
Scholtes claimed he forgot his daughter was still in the car until his wife came home.
“Video surveillance obtained does not show Christopher checking on his vehicle or daughter” before his wife returned home, court docs state.
“When she asked where the 2-year-old was, he began to check the rooms of the home and then realized he had left her in the vehicle.”
MOTHER’S PLEA
On Monday, Parker’s mother urged the court to reconsider holding her husband until his preliminary hearing on August 1 as she called her child’s death “a big mistake.”
“I’m just asking if you can allow him to come home to us so we can all start the grieving process,” the doctor told the judge.
“So that he can bury our daughter with us this upcoming week, and [so] that we can go through this poor process together as a family,” she continued.
“This was a big mistake and I think that it doesn’t represent him.
“I just want the girls to see their father so that I don’t have to tell them tonight that they’re going to endure another loss.”
The defense highlighted that the father of two does not have a criminal history aside from a decades-old DUI charge.
Scholtes was released per the judge’s ruling in agreement with Erika’s plea at the hearing with bail set at $25,000 despite demands from the prosecution to see it set at $1 million.
On the day of Parker’s death, record temperatures of 111 degrees were recorded in Tucson which would see in-car temperatures reach 140 degrees in about 20 minutes, according to ACB News outlet KNXV-TV.