An Indiana woman has been charged with neglect after leaving her child in a hot car while she was at an interview with the Department of Child Services (DCS).
Jennifer Ost, 27, was at Community Pediatrics Hospital for an interview with DCS on Tuesday, July 16 because she had signed her newborn baby out of the hospital against medical advice.
The Milroy woman had given birth to a boy on Friday, July 12 at the Decatur County Memorial Hospital in Greensburg, reported WRTV.
Ost arrived ten minutes late to her 2:30 p.m. appointment with her newborn baby, leaving her other child in the vehicle. After a doctor examined the baby, Ost reportedly became “evasive,” “belligerent,” and was “cursing” at the DCS employee, according to court documents, reported Fox News.
Police: Indiana mother left child in hot car while at DCS appointment with newborn https://t.co/zGqOaFG2T6
— WGN TV News (@WGNNews) July 19, 2019
The interview with the DCS employee, a hospital social worker, and a hospital police officer lasted approximately two hours and ended when the hospital received a call about a small child in a hot car in the parking lot around 4:30 p.m.
Hospital police found a boy in the car with all the windows rolled up and the car doors unlocked. Police said the boy was dripping wet from sweat and was watching a movie on a cell phone. Temperatures outside at the time were 86 degrees.
RTV6 reported that the boy refused to open the car doors for police. When officers asked the child what he was doing, he said it was “okay as long as he had his mother’s keys.” Police said the boy did not have the keys. Court records said officers then brought the child inside.
Officers identified the child as Ost’s after running the vehicle’s plate number, the broadcaster reported.
The 27-year-old mother of two said she left her son in the car because he did not want to go inside with her.
Ost was arrested and charged with neglect of a dependent. Both children are currently in Madison County DCS custody, Fox News reported.
Child Dies After Being Left in Hot Car for Hours
A Florida woman has been arrested after her 2-year-old was found dead in a hot car parked outside, police said.
Jessica Monell, 36, is facing charges of homicide-neglect manslaughter, child neglect, and three counts of possession of a controlled substance, reported the Pensacola News Journal.
Escambia County Sheriff’s Major Andrew Hobbs said Monell arrived home around 6 a.m. on Wednesday, April 10, and went inside, leaving her 2-year-old daughter Joy Monell in the car.
“She got home and went inside to sleep. She forgot her kid was left in the car,” Hobbs said, according to the Pensacola News Journal. “The poor child had to sit in the car for over eight hours in the heat.”
Monell didn’t wake up until around 4 p.m. By then, the little girl was already dead, Hobbs said.
When police arrived, they reportedly found Monell sobbing hysterically on her living room floor.
Investigators found bags of suspected crystal meth, Xanax, and 20 grams of marijuana in Monell’s apartment, according to WESH.
NTD Staff Writer Tiffany Meier contributed to this story.
