Toddler dies after being left in car for several hours; mom arrested
WILLITS » An 18-month-old boy died after being left inside a car for about 10 hours into the early afternoon, and his 23-year-old mother was arrested on suspicion of willfully causing or permitting a child to suffer great bodily injury or death, according to authorities.
The boy’s death in the Mendocino County community marks the first child vehicular heatstroke death in California this year and the 17th in the United States, according to data at noheatstroke. org, a website maintained by Jan Null, a San Jose State professor and former meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The woman, 23-year-old Alexandrea Raven Scott of Trinidad, was arrested and is being held without bail, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. The boy was identified as Chergery Teywoh Lew Mays.
The sheriff’s office alleges that Scott went to a friend’s house in Willits at about 3 a.m. Wednesday and left the boy unattended in the back seat of a vehicle with the windows rolled up for about 10 hours as she socialized with people.
By 1 p.m. Wednesday, temperatures in Willits reached about 80 degrees.
However, the temperature in the car on an 80-degree day was probably 130 degrees, Null said.
“It doesn’t have to be a blazing hot day for these to happen,” Null said. “They can happen anywhere, and happen to anyone.”
Scott took her son to Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits, located about 80 miles north of Santa Rosa. At 1:38 p.m., the sheriff’s office was called to investigate a reported coroner’s case involving a small child.