On Friday, June 23rd Cynthia Randolph, age 24 was arrested for the negligence of her children and is facing two felony charges of injury to a child resulting in death. Native to Forth Worth, Texas, Juliet and Cavanaugh Ramirez, two years old and 16 months old, were found dead in their Mother's Car on Friday, May 26th from extreme heat-exposure. They were left in the car for 2 to 3 hours, while the outside temperature remained at 96 degrees. When confronted by authorities, Randolph kept altering her story in order to deflect the blame.
She finally admitted to deliberately locking them in the car to "teach them a lesson."
They ran off
Initially, Randolph told officers that while she was doing laundry she went to check on the children and they were nowhere to be found. She said they were playing on the back porch and when she could not find them she went looking for them. Randolph was searching for about 30 minutes when she found them locked inside her car. She had to break the window to rescue them. Randolph claimed that the children ran off and locked themselves inside the car. This is hard to believe, keeping in mind that the younger child would just be learning to walk and it is nearly impossible for a 2 and 1-year-old to muster the strength and find the balance to get inside a car on their own.
Randolph's arrest
Upon her arrest, Randolph's story changed, and she explained that she left her children in the car as punishment. Around noon, Randolph was getting ready to get out of the car and told her children it was time to go into the house. They were playing and the older child, Juliet wanted to stay inside. Randolph decided to leave the car and lock it, figuring that Juliet would manage to get herself and her brother out of the car when they were ready.
She said she went into the house to smoke marijuana and fell asleep for several hours. When she woke up, she came to find the children unresponsive. Randolph then smashed one of her car windows to make it look like an "accident." The sheriff's office was alerted around 4 pm, and the children were pronounced dead around 30 minutes later.
Randolph was taken into custody and admitted into Parker County Jail.
Strange case
This is not the first time a child has been left unattended in an overheated car, and unfortunately, it will probably not be the last. Most of the time parents or guardians leave their children in cars thinking they will return sooner rather than later and not truly realizing the extreme weather conditions. These incidents occur more so from neglect and mishap rather than methods of discipline. This is a strange case, considering it is abnormal for children to be deliberately left in cars as a form of punishment and especially not at such young ages. Juliet and Cavanaugh were not kids they were toddlers. Randolph's decision was callous, and this probably was not the first time she left her children in the car or anywhere unattended.
