A 3-year-old boy in Georgia died after his grandmother forgot about him in a hot car for hours, local news reports said.
3-year-old Kendrick Engram Jr. was found dead inside an SUV in a Wendy’s parking lot on Wynnton Road in Columbus, Georgia, on Sunday evening after the boy’s uncle borrowed what he thought was a passenger-less vehicle to make a drive-thru ice cream run. The boy’s grandmother had taken Engram Jr. and three other children to church earlier in the day, stopped to eat, and then arrived back at home around 5:30 p.m.
Several hours passed before the grandmother realized the boy was missing around 8 p.m.
She called the boy’s uncle, who made the gruesome discovery of his 3-year-old nephew, who was still strapped into his third-row car seat. The child was pronounced dead shortly after 9 p.m.
Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan determined the boy died of asphyxiation after being left in the hot vehicle for nearly three hours. Temperatures were in the 90s in Columbus on Sunday.
“There were signs that he had tried to climb out,” Bryan said.
Police said it’s not clear at this time if anyone will face charges over the boy’s death.
Engram Jr. has been the seventh child to die in the U.S. this year as a result of being left in a hot car, according to the organization Kids and Car Safety. All the deaths listed were for children ages three or younger.
Tell us your thoughts...