A mother is accused of abandoning her toddler inside her hot car for an audition.
According to reports, by the time police removed the toddler from the car, the baby was “drenched in sweat” in her heavy coat. Outside the temperature was only 70 degrees, but police report the inside car temperature soared past 100 degrees.
Thirty minutes had passed since Kelsey McMurty had left her 9-month-old daughter in the parking lot of a strip club in downtown Nashville on Thursday, according to WSB-TV.
Somebody spotted the child and called the police. The doors were locked and the windows were rolled up. According to NBC’s WSMV, McMurty was auditioning for a job at Deja Vu Showgirls.
She had a friend inside the club, 19-year-old Summer Taylor, who was supposed to be keeping an eye on her child. Taylor told police that she had been checking on the little girl, but witnesses told investigators that she had been inside the strip club the entire time, WSMV reported.
McMurtry and Taylor are facing charges of child neglect, the station reported. McMurtry has also been charged with criminal impersonation for lying to police about her identity to avoid being associated with an outstanding warrant.
It’s extremely dangerous to leave a child inside a car.Purnima Unni, the pediatric trauma injury prevention manager at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, told WSMV that “there is no time that is an acceptable time for a child to be left alone in a car,” Unni said. “It’s as simple as that.”
“The child’s body temperature rises three to five times faster and higher than an adult,” she added. “So 104 degrees, you find the internal organs of the child begin to shut down. And when it’s 107 degrees, we can see near-death.”
It’s important to point out seven years ago a dog died inside of a car. 24-year-old Quincy Vanderbilt was charged with animal cruelty in 2009 after his dog died as a result of being left in a hot car while his girlfriend auditioned for “American Idol” in Denver.
Via WSB-TV
