A Texas mother is facing murder charges after allegedly leaving her infant child in a hot car without air conditioning, resulting in the child’s death. Vanessa Esquivel, 27, was arrested and charged in Frisco, according to a police statement released last Thursday.
Law enforcement officials report that the child’s death occurred on August 16, when Esquivel allegedly left the baby in the car for several hours as temperatures soared into the mid-90s. Esquivel had reportedly arrived at her workplace on the 3200 block of Preston Road around 2:00 p.m. Detectives believe that she knowingly left her 15-month-old child in the car, which lacked functioning air conditioning, for over two hours in an outside temperature of at least 95 degrees.
Weather services confirmed that the high temperature in Dallas on that day reached 96 degrees. The tragic incident came to light when investigators were alerted to the infant’s death following a call to the Medical City Plano hospital. According to police, Esquivel’s actions in Frisco, a city located in the northern part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, put the child in danger and caused injuries that led to the baby’s death.
Esquivel was taken into custody on August 20, as per the police statement. Online records show that she remains in the Collin County Jail with a bond set at $250,000 as of last Friday.
Court and jail records have not yet revealed a scheduled court date for Esquivel. If found guilty, she could face a prison sentence ranging from five years to life.