Girl, 3, Dies After Being Left in a Sweltering Car

A 3-year-old girl died Friday afternoon in Rialto after her foster mother accidentally left her in a sweltering car, retrieving her about 20 minutes later, police said.

The 48-year-old foster mother was not arrested, said Rialto Police Lt. Joe Cirilo.

“This appears to be an unfortunate tragedy,” Cirilo said. “But the case will be sent to the district attorney to determine if, in fact, criminal charges should be filed.”

The girl and two other foster children, ages 5 and 6, were in the car with the woman when she arrived home about 4 p.m. Friday after visiting a friend.

She was distracted by her blind dog, who was standing in the driveway of her home, said Randy Emon, supervising deputy coroner in the San Bernardino County coroner’s office.

As the foster mother climbed out of the car to move the dog, she spotted the children scampering out of the car. She believed all of the children entered the house, Emon said.

About 15 to 20 minutes later she realized the 3-year-old had been left in the car and rushed out to get her, Emon said.

“She found the child in the car barely responsive so she took the child into the house and tried to cool her down because she was very hot,” Emon said.

Paramedics who tried to revive the girl said her temperature was 108 degrees, the coroner said. “She was in full cardiac arrest when the paramedics arrived,” Emon added.

Investigators were trying to contact the girl’s family before releasing her name. She was pronounced dead at Community Hospital in San Bernardino at 4:52 p.m., Emon said.

“The woman was absolutely torn and emotionally distraught over this incident,” Cirilo said.

The woman lived in an “upper-middle-class neighborhood” in Rialto, he said, on a street lined with two-story homes. Temperatures were in the high 90s in Rialto, a town just west of San Bernardino.

On Wednesday, Northridge resident Subha Sadaf, 21, was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment after an off-duty police officer noticed her children sweating in her parked van.

The officer had been giving water to the two children, ages 7 weeks and 1 1/2 years, through a cracked window in the van and was about to break the window when Sadaf showed up and was arrested, police said. She was taken to Van Nuys jail, and later released on $50,000 bail.