Forgotten baby dies in car

As reported in our daily paper today:

A mother's horror turned to a grave reality just before 6 p.m. Wednesday when she stopped to pick up her 1-year-old son from Madison's Place Day Care.

According to police, day care employees told the mother they had not seen Joseph Duemer - born July 15, 2004 - all day, and he had not been checked into the facility.

The mother returned to her vehicle to find Joseph dead in the back seat, said Lubbock police spokesman Lt. Roy Bassett. "He was in the back seat and had been back there all day," Bassett said.

It appears that the mom left the house at 8am, intending to take her son to daycare, but somehow forgot about the child and went straight to work. She went to pick the kid up at the daycare after work, but of course he'd never been dropped off. She went back to her car and found him - still strapped into his car seat - dead. He'd been in the windows-up car for 8 hours in 93 degree Lubbock heat.

The DAs office isn't sure if they are going to file charges yet. The police dept is saying it was unintentional, but does that make it forgivable?!!! I have no doubt she'll be on one of our probation caseloads in less than a year.

The death of any child is absolutely heartbreaking. Even more so in this situation when a loved one is to blame. I can't imagine the pain that either parent is undergoing tonight (or for the next 20 years). You always hear statistics that marriages rarely last after the death of a child. Can you imagine this couple's chances when the mother is actually responsible for her 1-year old's death??