Two Tennessee toddlers died of heat stroke after being locked inside a car for more than an hour by their mother, Samantha Harper. Tennessee police report Samantha Harper admitted to placing the children in the car and then falling asleep inside their home, according to the Daily Mail.
Two-year-old Savannah and her brother 3-year-old Daniel Marise were found dead by their mother after she awoke from her nap. Samantha Haprer, 25, left the children in the car with the windows rolled up in the driveway of their Smyrna, Tennessee home. Law enforcement officers report the temperatures the day the toddlers died in the car of heat stroke were in the 90s outside, but would have been up to 40 degrees higher inside the vehicle, WSMV News reports.
The condition’s inside Samantha Harper’s home were referred to as “deplorable” according to reports from Smyrna police officers who investigated the property seeking clues in the heat stroke deaths of the toddlers. The local health department has since condemned the property and boarded up the windows and doors.
“We are going to follow every lead we get. We are going to speak to everyone that we can that had knowledge of the children and conditions of the home. It’s hard to imagine that people would allow themselves to live in the conditions this house was in.” Sgt. Bobby Gibson stated in a press release about the heat stroke deaths of Savannah and Daniel Marise.
Although Samantha Harper did not have a police record until the heat stroke deaths of her two toddler children, the Smyrna Police Department notes that LaVergne Police officers filed a child neglect report against her last year which resulted in a Department of Children’ Services referral. Samantha Harper is being held in the local jail on aggravated child abuse charges until her court appearance on August 9. Additional charges may still be filed in the heat stroke deaths of the two young children. The father of the toddlers who died of heat stroke was not home at the time.
