A teenaged mom is charged with two counts of child endangerment after officials say she left her two young children inside a hot car for fifteen hours, resulting in their deaths, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The one year old and two year old girls died last night at University Hospital in San Antonio.Rusty Hierholzer, the Sheriff of Kerr County, about sixty miles northwest of San Antonio, says Amanda Hawkins, 19, and her 16 year old boyfriend, brought the little girls, aged 2 and 1, to Peterson Regional Medical Center in Kerrville Wednesday afternoon, and claimed the girls had 'collapsed while smelling flowers' at a nearby park
.Hospital officials saw the girls were in grave condition and they were rushed to the San Antonio hospital, where they were pronounced dead Thursday night.
Hierholzer says an investigation determined that Hawkins had intentionally left the two children inside Amanda's vehicle for 15 hours while she and friends were inside a Kerrville home.
"Upon discovering the girls, the mother attempted to bathe them and did not immediately want to take the girls to the hospital because she did not want to get into trouble," Hierholzer said.
He says a grand jury will determine if the child endangerment charge should be upgraded to murder. Bond is set at $35,000 on each count.
Weather records show the temperature overnight Wednesday until noon Thursday, when the children were rescued ranged from the low seventies to high eighties.
"This is by far the most horrific case of child endangerment that I have seen in the 37 years I have been in law enforcemnt," Hierholzer said.