Teen Dad Leaves One-Year-Old Son to Die in Hot Car, Charged With Murder

A 19 year-old father from Ohio left his one-year-old son to die in a car after he was neglected for more than five hours in temperatures that reached 87 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside. It is assumed that the temperature inside the vehicle reached upwards of 130 degrees.

Landon Parrott, 19, admitted to leaving his 14-month-old son in the car to die after police found inconsistent information prompting a confession from the father. At 2 p.m. on Thursday the unresponsive boy was brought into the emergency room at Cleveland Clinic Union hospital by his father, prompting a call to New Philadelphia police.

“The child passed away after being left in the car unattended for approximately 5 hours, with an outside temperature of 87 degrees,” New Philadelphia Police Chief Michael Goodwin said in a statement on Facebook.

Parrott claimed he had left the baby in his car only briefly so he could use the bathroom until investigators confronted him with video footage of him leaving the boy in the car at 8:30 a.m. and not returning to the car until 1:50 p.m. to pick up his wife from work.

"We estimate that would’ve made the interior of the car about 130 degrees and this child was in there strapped into a car seat with no fluids, no air conditioning, nothing," said New Philadelphia Police Department Captain Ty Norris. "Heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to see this unfold before your eyes.”

According to police, Parrott admitted to knowing the dangers of leaving children in hot cats but did so anyway because he did want the baby to be a disturbance in the apartment.

Parrott has been charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and two counts of endangering children, police said. The 19-year-old is being held in custody at Tuscarawas County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

An obituary posted online wrote that the baby, named Kyler, had a “sweet disposition and gentle way with animals, even at such a young age.”

“Kyler was an unexpected surprise who immediately changed our world in the best way, from the very beginning,” the grandparents of the deceased child wrote on Facebook.

On average 38 children under the age of 15 die each year due to heat stroke caused by being left in a hot car or vehicle. Thus far in the year 2022, 22 child deaths caused by hot cars have been reported. Both 2018 and 2019 saw the highest number of child deaths with 53 children dying.