Toddler left in car for 4 hours dies; charges unlikely
Posted on Saturday, June 24, 2006
A 14-month old boy died Friday morning, less than 24 hours after his mother left him in her vehicle at Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas in De Queen.
Zachary Bowden was pronounced dead at 4: 16 a.m. at Arkansas Children's Hospital, according to information from the Pulaski County coroner's office.
The boy's mother, Kristin Bowden, the vice chancellor and dean of academic services at the community college, reportedly left the baby in her car for about four hours - from 8 a. m., when she arrived on campus for a summer-school program, to noon, when she went back to her car, said Frank Adams, president of the college.
"We are running a program for high-school students which we call Extreme Academy. And, as a matter of fact, we were dealing with ambulances and helicopters and all of that related to health care,"Adams said in a telephone interview. "When the program was over, [Bowden ] went to her car and found that her child was there."
The temperature in De Queen ranged from 77 degrees at 8 a.m. to 89 degrees at noon, according to the National Weather Service.
Bowden immediately took her son to the college's health building, where a student in the licensed practical nurse program performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Adams said. Paramedics then transported the child to De Queen hospital, from where he was airlifted by Angel Flight to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, where he died.
"It's just a real sad situation,"Adams said.
Calls to the Bowden home in De Queen were not returned Friday.
Prosecuting Attorney Tom Cooper of Ashdown said in an interview that it was unlikely that charges will be filed against the mother.
He cited several mitigating factors, including the mother's recent brain surgery; the child's disability, which limited his ability to cry, and the fact that the boy's grandmother usually dropped the boy off at preschool.
"We believe at this point it was a horrible accident,"Cooper said.
In cases of this kind that warrant criminal charges, Cooper said, typically the parent or guardian intentionally leaves the child in the car, assuming the child will be all right for the brief period of time that they are away.
"In the cases that we normally see, they do it thinking it would be OK. That is a bad decision, a criminal decision,"Cooper said. "In this case, it wasn't a conscious decision to leave [the baby ]."
The prosecutor described what happened as a tragedy caused by a set of unfortunate circumstances.
The boy, who rarely made any noise, had recently been enrolled in a preschool program for children with disabilities. The grandmother usually drove Zachary to preschool, so it was not in Bowden's routine to drop him off, Cooper said. In addition, Bowden recently underwent brain surgery for cancer, which could have affected her memory, he said.
"Everyone we have talked to says she was really protective of this child and certainly a really good mother with this child and her other children, and this was so out of character for her,"Cooper said. "Most people refer to that brain surgery as being a factor."
It could not be determined Friday afternoon how many other children Bowden has.
Zachary's death marked at least the seventh fatality, nationally, this year of a child who died from a heat-related illness after being locked in a vehicle, said Janette Fennell, executive director of Kids And Cars, a Kansas-based group that collects data on children who died in hot vehicles. In 2005, 42 children died from hyperthermia after being locked in hot vehicles, Fennell said.
Zachary also became at least the fourth Arkansas child to die after being left in a hot vehicle in the past three years. In August 2003, 3-year-old Brianna Cordell of Springdale died of hyperthermia after she was found in her mother's car. A month later, in North Little Rock, Tavian Johnson, also 3, died after he was left in a day-care van. In June 2005, Marcellus Johnson, 3, died after being left in a day-care van in Little Rock.
Zachary's death was the second tragedy involving children in De Queen this year. In January, a De Queen mother, Eleazar Paula Mendez, was accused of suffocating her three children, 5-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and a 7-year old boy.
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