Florida woman charged in toddler's hot car death didn't call 911, girl's mother says
(Courtesy: Elbia Mendez-Ramirez via WSVN)
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - A South Florida woman is charged with manslaughter after police say she left a 2-year-old child in a hot vehicle for more than seven hours.
Homestead police say 43-year-old Juana Perez-Domingo was supposed to drive 2-year-old Joselyn Mendez to daycare early Friday morning. But instead, she drove the little girl to her own home because the daycare wasn't open yet.
Investigators said Perez-Domingo left Joselyn strapped in the back seat of her transport van. She told detectives that she then got distracted and forgot about the toddler until she returned to the vehicle seven hours later.
The child's mother, Elbia Mendez-Ramirez, told WSVN that the woman did not call 911. Instead, a Miami-Dade police report says Perez-Domingo called the mother and then drove her to the mother's house. By that point, little Joselyn had died.
Courtesy: Miami-Dade Corrections
"I feel really awful right now. I feel bad because my daughter isn’t here with me," the grieving mother told the news outlet. "She would tell me everything, ‘Mommy,’ but now who will talk to me about anything? Nobody."
Police say Perez-Domingo also had no driver's license. An autopsy was scheduled for Saturday.
Perez-Domingo was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, and was released on $50,000 bond.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.