A baby girl was brought to the hospital after being left behind by a mother and her aunt in a hot car who went shopping at Target. The scary scene unfolded on Sunday in Goodyear, Arizona where outdoor temperatures soared into the low 100’s. The child’s mother, 37-year-old Stacey Holly was arrested and charged with child abuse and endangerment.
Around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Goodyear police said the aunt of the 5-month-old girl called and reported the child had been left in a vehicle in the parking lot of a Target store. Police say the baby appeared to be “sweating and had redness in her face.” The baby was transported to Phoenix Children’s Hospital in stable condition.
According to court documents, the child was in the vehicle for about 50 minutes. According to the National Weather Service, the air temperature in a car left closed on an 80 degree day could rise to 123 degrees in as little as an hour.
Police said the mother and the aunt of the baby had gone into the store and had forgotten about the baby. They didn’t forget about the baby’s 6 year old sister which was sitting next to the baby in the vehicle.
In Court on Monday, Holly said it was a terrible accident. After the court appearance, the judge allowed her to be released from jail although she is due to return to court on July 1. When asked what should happen to her, Stacey Larae Holly, 37, reportedly told police she should be arrested, knowing the incident could have turned into a death investigation. “Holly was unable to explain why she left her daughter, blaming she was distracted, and talked with her sister about how she needed to ‘shave her legs,’” according to a probable cause statement. At the time of arrest, Goodyear Police said Holly was “remorseful and perplexed about how she could have forgotten about her child.”
