Baby Dies After Father Forgets He Left Her in the Car

Investigators were conducting an autopsy Thursday on a 13-month-old girl whose father allegedly forgot she was in a sunbaked car for about eight hours.

Although final results could take days, Brianna Lynne Rodrigues probably died of excessive heat, police spokesman Bob Nicholas said.

“[The parents] were obviously upset. The father even showed some signs of shock state,” Nicholas said. “So far we haven’t been able to say [what happened], other than that he simply forgot.”

The baby’s father, Darren Rodrigues, 29, and his wife, Nichol, 24, took turns taking Brianna to child care, Nicholas said. Darren Rodrigues placed Brianna in the back seat of his car before leaving for work Wednesday morning.

Nicholas said Rodrigues apparently forgot about taking Brianna to a child-care center and drove straight to work.

About 5 p.m., the baby’s mother left her job to pick up her daughter, but she wasn’t there. The woman called her husband, who immediately ran out to the parking lot only to find his daughter dead.

Rodrigues and emergency crews tried to resuscitate Brianna but failed, Nicholas said.

“We all know the temperature outside is hot. Inside a vehicle it is likely that temperatures reached upward of 150 degrees,” Nicholas said.

After the doors of the car had been open for about two hours, authorities measured the temperature inside at 108 degrees. At 5 p.m., the temperature outside was 98 degrees.

“The only thing we can think of as to why no one saw the child is the vehicle has tinted windows,” Nicholas said.

The baby was the couple’s only child, he said. The father could face child neglect or child endangerment charges, Nicholas said.