A three-year-old boy was found dead in the back of his step-mum’s car, after she allegedly forgot he was asleep in the back seat during 31C heat.
Miguel Antunes Versari’s dehydrated body was left in the red Chrysler for more than 10 hours. His mum’s partner had reportedly forgotten to take him to nursery school when he fell asleep in the car.
She was meant to drop him at nursery for 7am, in Videira, Brazil, on April 25. But, after dropping her wife – Miguel’s nurse mum – off at work, she forgot about the boy, and left him in the car.
She only found the boy’s body in the car after preparing to collect him from nursery.
The outside temperature in Videira was about 31C during the heat of the day. Inside a hot car in those conditions, the mercury could hit more than 57C – similar to a warming oven.
Police opened a suspicious death investigation and were quizzing Miguel’s stepmother.
A police spokesperson said the day after the heartbreaking discovery: “Yesterday, she said that the child had flu-like symptoms and was medicated with ibuprofen.
“So he was not as active as usual and was sleeping in the back seat of the vehicle.
“After leaving her partner at work, she did not realise that the child was sleeping.”
Police were waiting for an autopsy report to reveal exactly how the boy died, and were analysing CCTV footage from around the family home.
Meanwhile, a four-month-old baby died earlier this month after his dad forgot about him.
Moshe Ehrlich, 35, had dropped three of his children off at school and was supposed to bring the infant to his babysitter’s home after that, according to a criminal complaint. However, he called his wife at her job to inform her that he had forgotten the milk for the baby and had to return home to get it.
He picked up the milk and some other bits he needed before returning to the car. But instead of driving back to the babysitter’s house, he went straight to the yeshiva – a traditional Jewish educational institution – he attends and forgot to drop off the baby, the complaint said. He parked outside the school in Lakewood, New Jersey, at about 11am and went in to attend the classes.
Then at around 1.30pm, someone from the school notified him that he had a phone call on a dedicated office line for family emergencies. The alarm was launched after the babysitter, Esther Kitay, texted Mr Ehrlich’s wife, Faiga, to find out what had happened since the infant hadn’t been dropped off that morning.
The father-of-six reportedly picked up his belongings and ran out to his car. The baby boy, whose name hasn’t been released, was taken to Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood, where he was late pronounced dead.
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