2-year-old found dead in hot day care van

OAKLAND PARK – The worst of summer tragedies happened Monday: A child was found dead in a transport van parked at Ceressa’s Daycare & Preschool in Oakland Park.

The little boy was only 2. His name was Noah Sneed.

He appeared to have died amid the heat, on a summer day that saw temperatures in the 90s. Noah had been in the white Ford E-350 Super Duty van parked in the driveway at 3140 NW 21st Ave. since morning, a Broward Sheriff ’s spokeswoman said.

Investigators weren’t yet sure exactly how long he’d been left there. It has not been disclosed who was driving the transport van Monday morning.

In the first 10 minutes on a day as hot as Monday, the temperature inside a locked vehicle could leap as much as 20 degrees. It would rise another 10 degrees in the next 10 minutes and about five degrees for every 10 minutes thereafter, said Janette Fennell, president and founder of Kids and Cars, a nonprofit that tracks hot-car deaths.

After an hour, the temperature inside a locked vehicle could be as much as 40 to 50 degrees hotter than it is outside, Fennell said.

“For a child to die, it’s when their temperature gets to maybe 106 or 107 degrees,” she said. “And their little bodies heat up three to five times faster than ours.”

A child would likely start to get dizzy, disoriented and agitated. They can even have a seizure, Fennell said.

“We hope they pass out, or lose consciousness, or fall asleep,” she said. “But we don’t really know.”

This happens at least 38 times a year across the nation: A child accidentally left in a hot vehicle dies of heatstroke. Last year was especially bad. It happened 52 times, that’s nearly once a week.

Two dozen children already have died this year from hot-car deaths, according to Kids and Cars.

Four of those deaths were in Florida. That includes Noah. That surpasses Florida’s annual average of 3 per year.

Noah’s mother, of Fort Lauderdale, was notified of her son’s death at Broward sheriff headquarters sometime after a day care employee made the horrifying discovery.

A death investigation is underway. Noah’s body was taken to the medical examiner’s office, where an autopsy will help verify the cause of death. No one has been charged.

“Investigators are continuing to interview day care employees and other witnesses to determine the circumstances that led to the death,” said Keyla Concepcion, a sheriff ’s spokeswoman.

On Monday afternoon, detectives photographed the transport van in the driveway. It was shielded by an ambulance and a crimescene van. A black SUV from the Medical Examiner’s Office parked nearby and a folding fence with a tarp was extended so that the transfer of the child from the van to the medical examiner’s vehicle was not visible.

No one answered a phone call to the day care Monday, and the center’s voicemail box was full.

Parents were first sent to a nearby firehouse to pick up their youngsters. They were later directed to drive into the alley next to the day care so they could pick up their children behind the building.

Two sets of parents arrived at the firehouse looking frantic. One mother with two kids with her said she was told to head there. She wanted to pick up her 8-month-old daughter.

Lavonya Roach, whose three grandchildren attend the day care, also was told to go to the fire station to pick up the children. “It’s concerning,” she said. “It’s totally unacceptable. Death is never acceptable, especially with a minor.”

The day care, which according to county records operates as Ceressa’s Enrichment and Empowerment Academy at the same address, has been licensed as far back as 2009. The facility allows 40 children between infants and 5-year-olds, and provides multiple child care services, including the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program (VPK), beforeand after-school care, infant care, drop-in, yearround and weekend care, as well as serving food and transporting kids.

According to Florida business records, the facility’s president and registered agent is Linda Harris. Her fellow officers are listed as Lakiela Harris, Tammorah Jackson and Angela Elouidor.

Nobody was home at the Harris’ Lauderhill apartment on Monday evening.

The day care passed its most recent inspection in April, but was found noncompliant in several areas in prior inspections through the years.

An inspection in December 2018 found that staff members who care for infants weren’t up to date on training, sheets on infant cribs and play yards were not tight enough, and many toddlers weren’t wearing shoes.

An inspection in August 2018 found that an infant teacher had not completed safe sleep training, and one staff member hired in May 2017 had not completed required training. The violation noted she was scheduled to take the exam in the next two days, and the center was given one week to comply.

The center received violations for insufficient training and incorrect ratios of staff to children in inspections dating to 2015. In an August 2016 inspection, though the daycare’s vehicle inspection was up to date, a driver’s physical examination had expired the month before.

And an April 2017 inspection found that as many as 11 children’s immunization and physical examination records were outdated.

South Florida has seen child deaths from day care vans before.

At least one Broward day care closed in 2012 over safety concerns after the death of a 4-year-old boy left unattended in an SUV in Tamarac.

It’s happened in Homestead too, when the driver of a van connected to a day care there found a 1-year-old boy dead in the van in 2011.