No charges for mom of child who died in hot car

CINCINNATI » The mother of a 15-month-old girl who died after the woman left her inside a car as she worked in a nearby office will not be charged in the death, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Warren County prosecutor David Fornshell said his office will not take any charges against the mother of Sofia Aveiro to a grand jury.

The mother, Karen OsorioMartinez, found her child motionless Aug. 23 in the parking lot of Procter & Gamble offices in Mason, about 25 miles northeast of Cincinnati, where she worked.

“There’s no doubt that Sofia’s mother made a horrible mistake, and one that proved deadly for her daughter,” Fornshell said.

But he said there was no evidence that she knew she was putting her child at risk when she left the vehicle or that she acted with the “heedless indifference” to risk that would show the recklessness required by law for charges such as involuntary manslaughter or child endangering.

The mother was running late for work that morning and forgot that she had not dropped Sofia off at the day care center, Fornshell said. The child’s father found out his daughter wasn’t at the day care center when he went to pick her up, and he immediately called his wife.

Building surveillance video shows Osorio-Martinez receiving her husband’s call and then heading rapidly to her car, where she found her motionless daughter. She made a frantic 911 call, telling a dispatcher her daughter was dead.

Fornshell said the child, who was in the car more than eight hours, died of hyperthermia.

The girl’s family issued a statement through P&G last month asking for “prayers, patience and privacy during this unimaginably difficult time.”