A young girl was discovered dead in a car after her father allegedly got drunk and left her trapped inside on the hottest day of the year.
Joseph Boatman, 32, is accused of leaving his 21-month-old daughter strapped to her carseat in a vehicle outside a home in the Madisonville area of Louisiana, when the temperature reached 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
A family member found the toddler unresponsive in the car just before midday on Sunday, according to the St Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office.
‘This is a devastating loss that no family ever wants to face,’ stated Sheriff Randy Smith.
‘When a child is left in a vehicle, especially on a day when the heat index climbs over 100 degrees, the outcome can turn deadly in a matter of minutes.’
Boatman allegedly buckled his daughter up after picking her up from a family member’s home shortly after 2.30am on Sunday.
He went inside the residence and did not return to the car, according to detectives with the office’s major crimes unit. Boatman is believed to have drank multiple alcoholic drinks before picking up his daughter.
‘This case involved compromised judgment, and the result was heartbreaking,’ Smith said.
Boatman, of Hammond, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.
He was booked into the St Tammany Parish Correctional Center and remained there as of Tuesday, on a $750,000 bond.
The town of Madisonville is about 30 miles north of New Orleans.
His daughter has been identified as Ansleigh Boatman by Lisa Fulcher, who was like a grandmother to her.
Fulcher said that Ansleigh’s mother, Kristen Fulcher, lives in Texas and that a judge allowed Boatman to have custody of the toddler against her wishes.
‘She feels like she failed her, she feels like it’s her fault,’ Lisa told WDSU.
Boatman’s court date was not immediately known.
Ansleigh died nearly two years after a three-month-old boy who was left for several hours in a minivan by his parents in Upper Saint Clair, Pennsylvania, was found unresponsive and died.
