Prosecutors are weighing potential criminal charges against a Houston mother who abandoned her 9-year-old daughter in a vehicle for eight hours during her Tuesday work shift, resulting in the child’s death as temperatures soared close to 100 degrees.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office stated that investigators are awaiting autopsy results before determining whether to file charges. Authorities initially detained the 36-year-old mother but released her Wednesday while they continue gathering evidence.
Officials report that the child remained inside a Toyota Camry from approximately 6 a.m. when her 36-year-old mother started her shift at United States Gypsum, a building materials manufacturer. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the girl had a bottle of water and the car windows were slightly open, but the vehicle sat without shade.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez addressed the media Tuesday afternoon, calling the child’s death both “horrific” and entirely preventable.
“A 9-year-old beautiful little girl has lost her life by no fault of her own,” Gonzalez said. “There’s no justification for leaving a child in a hot vehicle —not for a quick errand, and certainly not for an entire workday.”
KPRC 2 reports that former Harris County prosecutor Ed McClees stated that authorities are awaiting autopsy and toxicology results before determining whether to charge the mother of the 9-year-old girl who died after remaining in a hot car. Possible charges may include criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, manslaughter, or murder, based on the evidence. McClees emphasized that although the mother may be mourning, Texas law still allows prosecution if her actions satisfy the requirements for criminal behavior. Prosecutors may bring the case before a grand jury after completing all medical and investigative reports.
Texas law forbids leaving a child alone in a vehicle under any circumstances, particularly during extreme heat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that an average of 37 children die annually in the U.S. from heatstroke after being left in cars—a figure that rises in southern states like Texas.
NBC DFW reports that the death of the 9-year-old girl in Galena Park represents the third child fatality in Texas within four days involving children left alone in hot cars. The additional cases involve a 3-month-old in Mission and a 4-year-old in Brownsville, all of whom died from heatstroke after being forgotten or abandoned. These tragedies demonstrate how rapidly extreme heat can become fatal in vehicles and underscore the critical need for heightened awareness and safety measures—particularly during Texas’s record-breaking summer temperatures.
