A two-year-old girl died on Tuesday after spending several hours alone in a hot car. Parker Scholtes was the victim’s identity, as given by the Marana Police Department. Parker’s father, Christopher Scholtes, 37, reportedly told authorities that she slept out in the back seat of the car when she got home.

Temperatures in Marana soared to 109 degrees Fahrenheit (42.7 degrees Celsius) that day.

Emergency responders were called to the Scholtes residence on Tuesday afternoon after Parker was found unresponsive in the vehicle. Despite medical intervention, the child was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to a release by the police department, “during the initial investigation, the father, identified as 37-year-old Christopher Scholtes, told officers he arrived home, and the 2-year-old girl was still asleep in the vehicle in her car seat. He left the vehicle on and was running in the driveway, with the air conditioning on and the child inside. Christopher told detectives he did not want to wake his daughter up so she could continue sleeping in the vehicle. Christopher then went inside the residence. The mother was not home, but shortly after she arrived, the child was discovered in the vehicle, which was no longer running, and the air conditioning was off. 9-1-1 was called, and the mother performed CPR until NWFD and MPD arrived. NWFD performed life-saving measures, and the child was transported to Banner University Medical Center. Unfortunately, the child was pronounced dead.”

Marana Police Detectives were granted a search warrant the night of the incident and conducted a thorough investigation. During the investigation, detectives obtained video surveillance from nearby residences and determined that the child had been in the vehicle for approximately three hours.

On July 12 at 8:38 AM, Christopher Scholtes was arrested and booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Centre for 2nd Degree Murder and Child Abuse related to this tragic event.

A 63-year-old man in Singapore is under investigation for allegedly confining his 15-year-old daughter to a tiny market stall for nearly a year. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the man, surnamed Tan, had been selling vegetables at a market on Circuit Road for a decade. He allegedly made his teen daughter live in one of the three stalls he rented at the wet market for 11 months. The 15-year-old was discovered when a neighbouring stall owner smelled excrement coming from Mr Tan’s stall and reported it to Singapore’s National Environment Agency. 

The staff from the agency discovered the girl in April, SCMP reported. The 15-year-old had been living in the six-square-metre space. Crammed into the small area was a desk, fridge, fan and a makeshift dirty bed on the floor. 

Neighbours said that the father-daughter duo, originally from Malaysia, had been living in the stall virtually day and night. They had never seen the girl go to school. The neighbours said that the 15-year-old did not leave the stall, even to wash or go to the toilet, and the gate was shut during the day as well as at night. 

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Mr Tan was protective of his daughter and never let her talk to other stall owners, they said. He also rejected offers to help. “He did not beat or abuse her, but treated her like a pet,” a neighbour said, per SCMP. The neighbours also said that the duo used to have a home, but was not known why they moved to the stall. 

Singapore’s National Environment Agency reported the case to the Ministry of Social and Family Development, following which the girl was sent to hospital for a check-up. Neighbours said they spotted Mr Tan a few times after his daughter was hospitalised. He reportedly told them he would be taking her back to Malaysia. 

The police are investigating the father for alleged child abuse. The probe is yet to reach a conclusion. 

Notably, under Singapore’s Children and Young Persons Act, ill-treatment of a child aged 16 or younger can result in a fine of up to USD 5,900 and a maximum jail term of eight years.
 

The man accused of killing his son by forcing the six-year-old into a bruising treadmill workout has claimed that it was pneumonia, and not the gym session, that killed the boy. According to New York Post, Christopher Gregor’s lawyer said during a court hearing that treadmill running “has nothing to do” with the death of Corey Micciolo. The incident took place in March 2021 and Gregor, 31, was arrested three months later. He is being held in the Ocean City Jail without bond.

The case gained significant attention after a disturbing video was presented in the court in Ocean County that showed Gregor forcing the six-year-old boy to run on a treadmill at high speed and incline at the Atlantic Heights Clubhouse fitness centre, allegedly because he thought his son was “too fat”.

NEW: Mother breaks down in court as she watches her son’s father abuse her child by making him run on the treadmill because he was “too fat.”

New Jersey father Christopher Gregor is accused of killing his 6-year-old son Corey Micciolo.

New footage shows the boy repeatedly face… pic.twitter.com/aVKknkOGd5

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) May 1, 2024

Gregor increased the speed and incline in treadmill settings until the boy flew off. In the surveillance video, he is seen picking the boy up and putting him back on the treadmill, but Corey falls again and continues to struggle until his father lowers the speed and gives the boy a break.

On Thursday, Gregor’s lawyer told the court, “When you see that video, you’re going to be horrified. You’re going to be mortified.”

“(But) Corey’s death had absolutely nothing to do with that treadmill,” the Post further quoted the lawyer as saying.

The prosecutors, however, disagreed with the argument and said it was his father’s chronic abuse that left Corey with internal injuries that ultimately cost him his life.

The boy’s mother Breanna Micciolo also took to the witness stand and said she noticed bruises on her son. “He had a bruise on his forehead. It was very odd-shaped. It looked like an impression. He had one on his chest. It looked like a scrape,” she told the jury.

Ms Micciolo was already in a custody battle with Gregor because she feared for her son’s life.

Murder charge was formally slapped on Gregor in March 2022 and the trial began.

Former YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke, known for offering parenting advice to millions online, received a sentence of up to 60 years in prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to child abuse charges, according to The Independent.

Franke, a mother of six, broke down in tears while addressing the court before Judge Richard Christofferson sentenced her to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years. These sentences stem from four counts of child abuse to which she pleaded guilty in December, according to the newspaper.

The charges relate to the abuse of two of Franke’s children, aged nine and 11 at the time, allegedly involving psychological manipulation, food deprivation, and isolation. Prosecutors described the victims’ living conditions as “concentration camp-like” and called her a significant threat to the community.

Also Read | Parenting Advice YouTuber Ruby Franke Pleads Guilty To Child Abuse

Franke’s former business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, who was also involved in the abuse, received the same sentence.

“The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in, and virtually all forms of entertainment,” Utah prosecutor Eric Clarke said.

In court, Franke was in tears following the sentence. She apologised to her children and said: “I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong.”

“I was led to believe that this world was an evil place, filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect, and children who need abuse,” she said.

In August 2023, Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested following an incident involving Franke’s undernourished 12-year-old son. The child escaped through a window at Hildebrandt’s residence in Ivins, Utah, seeking assistance from a neighbor by requesting food and water. Police records indicate that the child sustained lacerations from being restrained with a rope.