Death of 3-year-old girl left in vehicle for hours in triple-digit Arizona heat under investigation

BUCKEYE, Ariz. — Police in the Phoenix suburb of Buckeye are investigating the death of a 3-year-old girl who was left in a vehicle for more than two hours in triple-digit heat.

Authorities said the girl’s family had returned home from an outing at a park around 2:30 p.m. Sunday and nobody realized she was still in the SUV parked outside.

Police responded to reports of an unresponsive child around 5 p.m.

Officers tried to revive her with chest compressions and a defibrillator until paramedics arrived and rushed her to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

The name of the child and her parents haven’t been released.

“No arrests have been made at this point. The investigation is ongoing,” police spokesperson Carissa Planalp said Monday.

Police said detectives have been interviewing the girl’s parents and other family members to put together a timeline for the tragedy.

It’s unclear if the child was in a locked car seat and unable to get out of the vehicle by herself, according to police.

The National Weather Service in Phoenix said it was 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41.1 Celsius) from 2-5 p.m. Sunday in Buckeye, which is 36 miles (58 kilometers) west of Phoenix.

Long after the girl had been found, authorities took a temperature reading inside the car with the doors open and it was 130 degrees F (54.4 C).

“Here in the Phoenix metro, we have extreme heat, triple-digit temperatures,” Planalp said. “The message is always ‘look before you lock.’’’

According to the Kids and Car Safety website, at least 47 children have died in hot cars in Arizona since 1994.