With the temperature in Park County, TX, lingering around 96 degrees, 24-year-old Cynthia Marie Randolph told police that she locked her toddler-age son and daughter in a car outside of her home, which is near Fort Worth. On May 26, her 1-year-old boy, Cavanaugh Ramirez, and her 2-year-old girl, Juliet Ramirez, died inside that car parked in her driveway all because Randolph said she wanted to teach her children a lesson.
The toddlers died as a result of extreme heat exposure. She was arrested on Friday. Randolph is charged with two counts of causing injury to a child.
“Shifting” explanations of how her son and daughter died was used as probable cause for the charges against her, according to Parker County Sheriff’s Department.
Shifting versions of events accused mom told police
At first, she told officers her children were outside and were playing while she was inside her house folding laundry, according to authorities. She didn’t hear them for almost 30 minutes and looked for them. She said she found her children, her cellphone and her keys in the locked car. Randolph also claimed to have tried to save her toddlers.
Then, officers said, she told them that she called 911 after breaking a window and rescuing the toddlers. On Friday, however, she admitted to police when she was arrested that she actually locked her son and daughter in the car on purpose.
Cavanaugh and Juliet were pronounced dead by responders, Life Care Medics, at the scene.
The probable cause affidavit stated that Randolph shut the car door to teach her daughter a lesson when the toddlers wouldn’t get out of the car, believing that her little girl could get them out when they were ready, according to law enforcement.
She went in the house and fell asleep after smoking marijuana.
Her children were not responding after she returned to the car and for them, officers said, to make it look like an accident, she broke the car’s window.
Randolph remains in Parker County Jail. Bond is $100,000 for each of the two first-degree felony counts charges that she is accused of committing.
Hot car deaths causing heat strokes in children
Jan Null is a San Jose State University professor and a meteorologist who works with the National Safety Council. This year, so far, 13 children died, from heat strokes, when they were left in hot cars, according to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. Null also maintains annual records Hot Car Death trends. In the United States, every year, an average of 37 children die.
According to the Star-Telegram, Texas surpasses all other states with the number of children who dies inside hot cars. September 2, a new law in Texas will become effective. Someone breaking into a vehicle in order to save a child will not encounter liability for damages.
The Hot Cars Act of 2017, introduced June 7 by Representative Tim Ryan, D-OH, is intended to thwart the rate of rising hot car deaths. New cars, if the legislation passes, will mandate new cars to have a driver alert system if a child remains in a back seat once the engine is off.
