STATEMENT FROM Orange County
Sheriff's Office:
The child in this case has been
identified as Jace Leslie (Black Male DOB: 12/18/2018).
The initial investigation indicates
baby Jace was left inside of a vehicle in a rear-facing car seat
for several hours by a relative/caregiver while the caregiver
was at work. The caregiver was expected to drop Jace off at the
Indian Hill Road location for day care before work, but on
Friday, the caregiver did not drop him off.
When the caregiver arrived to pick
him up from the day care location at 3:42 p.m. Friday, baby Jace
was instead discovered unresponsive in the car, where he had
been for several hours. Aid was rendered by bystanders until
emergency responders arrived on scene and determined Jace was
deceased.
Detectives believe Jace died as a
result of being inside the hot car for an extended period, but
they must wait on the medical examiner’s office for an official
cause of death. The investigation in this case is still active
and ongoing.
We want to be clear that there is no
connection between baby Jace’s death and the home on Indian Hill
Road.
This is all the information we have to release at this
time.
Deputies: Woman arrested
in death of Florida boy who spent more than 7 hours in hot car
The child's mother reportedly told deputies Dougkindra Wallace
was in charge of taking the boy to and from daycare.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Deputies arrested a 34-year-old woman and
charged her in the death of a 1-year-old boy who spent more than
seven hours in a hot car in Orlando, the sheriff's office said.
Dougkindra Wallace was charged with aggravated manslaughter
of a child and child neglect, according to the arrest report.
On the morning of Sept. 11, Wallace was in charge of taking
Jace Leslie to daycare, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.
This was based on an arrangement between her and Leslie's
mother, something that had reportedly been ongoing for the past
10 months.
Deputies say Wallace picked up the boy at 7:30
a.m., and his sister helped to put him in his car seat located
in the back. Wallace's own child was said to be in the backseat,
as well.
About 10 minutes later, Wallace dropped her
child off at daycare, the sheriff's office said. It was around
that time when she reportedly made a phone call that lasted
about half an hour.
All the while, deputies say she drove
to Rolling Hills Elementary School where she taught, left the
car running so she could get out and get a COVID-19 temperature
check and returned to park the car in the teacher's lot. She
turned the car off and got out, the report reads.
At 3:21
p.m., deputies say Wallace got out of work and drove to a
student's house to drop off a textbook. At 3:40 p.m., she
arrived at Leslie's daycare and found the child still in the
back seat buckled up.
RELATED: Preventing hot car deaths:
Florida family mourns 1-year-old death
The temperature
reached highs of 105 degrees with the heat index. Wallace,
deputies say, likely was distracted while on the phone and
forgot all about the child.
"Our thoughts are with baby
Jace’s family," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
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