NC mom left infant in car and went to work, police say. Now she’s charged with murder

A Winston-Salem woman is charged with murder after she left her 9-month-old son in a car for hours while she went to work, officials say.

Kayla Rodgers, 23, brought her child, who was “lifeless and not breathing,” to Wilkes Medical Center on Thursday, WXII reported. Deputies from the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office were called to investigate the baby’s death at 4:20 p.m.

Rodgers told investigators she had picked up her son at 4 p.m. from a new babysitter’s house, where she found him face down in a crib, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

She said she brought the child to the emergency room because he was “unconscious and not breathing,” Fox 8 reported.

But deputies said the investigation revealed Rodgers knowingly left her son in the car for several hours while she went to work at Eckerd Connects in Boomer, the station reported.

Doctors performed CPR on the infant, but he was pronounced dead at 4:45 p.m. Thursday, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

Temperatures in the area reached the low 80s on Thursday.

Rogers was being held in the Wilkes County jail without bond, records show. She was charged with murder and felony child abuse.