Toddler left in hot car for over 9 hours dies, father charged with murder
“This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,” St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith said in a statement.
A father in Louisiana is facing a second-degree murder charge after authorities said he left his toddler in a hot car over the weekend, resulting in a "devastating" death.
Joseph Boatman, 32, of Hammond, was booked into the St. Tammany Parish Correctional Center on Sunday, June 8, after his 21-month-old daughter died, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said.
The jail in Covington, located in southeast Louisiana, is about 30 miles from the Mississippi state line.
A family member found the girl dead Sunday inside Boatman's vehicle after the sheriff's office announced he allegedly left her buckled inside a car outside a Madisonville-area home for nearly half a day.
Hammond, a city in Tangipahoa Parish, is about 45 miles northwest of New Orleans and about a 30-minute drive from where the girl's body was found.
“This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,” Sheriff Randy Smith said in a news release. “When a child is left in a vehicle, especially on a day when the heat index climbs over 100 degrees, the outcome can turn deadly in a matter of minutes. This case involved compromised judgment, and the result was heartbreaking.”
Dead toddler left in car for nearly 10 hours
Shortly before noon Sunday, deputies were dispatched to the residence after a family member found the girl unresponsive inside the vehicle.
The sheriff's office said its preliminary investigation revealed the girl had been left alone in the vehicle for more than nine hours.
Detectives learned that shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Sunday that the child's father strapped the toddler in her car seat in the vehicle after picking her up from a family member’s home, according to the sheriff's office.
"After strapping the toddler in her car seat, Boatman went back inside the residence and never returned to the vehicle," the agency wrote in its release. "It was also learned that prior to Boatman arriving to pick up his daughter, he had consumed multiple alcoholic beverages."
Father charged with murder in hot car death jailed on $750K bond
As of June 10, online records showed, Boatman remained jailed on a $750,000 bond.
It was not immediately known whether he had obtained legal counsel or when he was due to appear in court on the charge.
How many children died in hot cars last year?
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an average of 37 children die annually from heatstroke because they were left or became trapped in a vehicle.
Last year, the federal agency reported 39 children died in hot cars across the U.S., an increase over 2023 when 29 children died from heatstroke.
In 2018 and 2019, 53 died each year, marking the most hot car deaths for children in a quarter century, according to NoHeatstroke.org.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for Paste BN. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.