A Richmond, Virginia mother is calling her 10-month-old daughter’s death an “accident.”
Initial reports said the mother of four left her 10-month-old in the car while she grocery shopped, but during an interview with CBS 6, the woman said that wasn’t true. She had, in fact, brought her daughter into the grocery store with her, but she did leave her in the car while unloading the purchased goods.
According to CBS 6, the mother of Luciana “Lulu” Kaye Diaz told reporters that she and her daughter had just got home from the grocery store when she left her daughter in the car as it sat outside their South Richmond home, while she unloaded their groceries.
The unnamed woman said that when she first started bringing her groceries into their home, her daughter “was throwing a fit.” She said she was able to calm her daughter down before she continued.
The mom insisted that while she unloaded her car, the windows were down and the car door where her daughter was sitting was open.
She said it was when she was finished unloading everything that she walked back outside and found her daughter unresponsive. That’s when she called 911.
The mom told CBS 6 that it didn’t take her “a long time” to bring her groceries inside.
According to Crime Insider, Diaz went into cardiac arrest at some point while she was inside her mother’s vehicle. She passed away while being transported to a local hospital.
As CBS 6 reporter Cameron Thompson said, the mother was “distraught” while talking about her daughter’s passing. She called it “a bad dream” and said her daughter was acting normal up until she found her unresponsive inside the vehicle.
Although Lulu’s cause of death has not been confirmed, 21 children in the United States have died in hot cars in 2019, Kids and Cars reports. All of those children were 4 years old or younger.
Around the time of the baby’s passing, temperatures in Richmond were in the 90s but felt like 101 degrees.
As ABC News Radio reports, it only takes a person’s internal body temperatures to rise above 104 degrees before internal organs start to shut down. And a child’s body heats up faster than that of a grown adult.
It’s unclear if the mother will face any charges in her daughter’s unexpected passing. However, the Richmond Police Department’s Major Crimes division is still investigating Diaz’s death, but says “foul play is not immediately suspected.”
