The father of a 2-year-old Marana girl who died this week after being left inside a car for hours has been arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and child abuse, authorities said Friday.
Christopher Scholtes was arrested Friday morning and booked into the Pima County jail, the Marana Police Department said in a news release.
The arrest comes days after a search warrant return filed in Pima County Justice Court indicated that the child could have spent up to three hours inside the vehicle parked outside the familyβs Marana home in the 5100 block of West Paytons Court in triple-digit heat.
Surveillance video from neighbors shows Scholtes arrived at the family home about 12:53 p.m. Tuesday, about three hours before rescuers were called about an unresponsive child, a narrative in a search warrant return shows.
Marana police initially said the child was left in the vehicle for up to an hour, and that Scholtes told investigators he left the car running with the air conditioning on as his daughter slept.
But the court document listing items police seized as part of the investigation provides a more detailed narrative of the events that led to the girlβs death.
It says surveillance cameras in the neighborhood show the father parked at the house about 10 minutes before 1 p.m., after taking the child with him to run errands.
It was about 109 degrees that day.
He later told police his daughter fell asleep in her car seat while they were returning from running errands and that he left her in the running car with the AC turned on while he went into the house, something he said heβd done before, the court document says.
The father also told police that if the car heats up too much or shuts off, he usually receives alerts on his cell phone. But that didnβt happen this time, the document says.
The car was parked in the driveway close to the front door. The father told police he returned home about 2:45 p.m., nearly two hours later than the surveillance video indicates, according to the court document.
He told officers his wife came home about 4 p.m. and asked about their daughter.
Thatβs when they brought the girl inside, put her on the floor near the kitchen and her mother β a doctor β started administering life-saving measures, the document says.
The child was pronounced dead at the hospital at 4:58 p.m.
Among the items police seized: a PS5 gaming system; a remote control; a gaming headset; a drink left on the coffee table; a laptop; and an iPad tablet.
The investigation continues.
