Toddler left in hot minivan dies

An autopsy was scheduled to be performed today on a 23-month-old boy who died Monday after his mother left him inside a minivan for several hours, authorities said.

Jack Winchester was dead when Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were called to his family’s home in the 20300 block of High Point Place about 5:10 p.m. Monday, authorities said.

The boy’s mother had left him in the minivan with the windows up after returning from grocery shopping with his two siblings, ages 6 and 4, Lt. Dave Dolson said.

The mother, whose name had not been released Tuesday evening, left the vehicle to unload groceries and assumed the two older children had unloaded Jack, Dolson said.

After she realized Jack was missing, she searched the house and found him unconscious and still strapped into his car seat in the minivan, the lieutenant said.

“It was a combination of absent-mindedness and distraction,” Dolson said.

The boy’s death is being investigated as a homicide.

Investigators have questioned the mother, whom Dolson described as “distraught,” and father, who arrived home soon after the boy was discovered. Detectives planned to question the couple’s two children Tuesday, Dolson said.