A 2-year-old girl was found dead in her family’s car after she was left in the vehicle for hours upon returning from lunch in DeLand.
On Friday, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office detectives provided details about their ongoing investigation into the death of a toddler in Orange City.
According to the sheriff’s office, a family left their home on Highland Drive and went to lunch in DeLand on Thursday, June 8. The family returned home at around 2:40 p.m. with the 2-year-old child and her two older brothers, who are 8 and 15 years old.
At around 5 p.m., the girl’s parents discovered that she was still in the car and had become unresponsive. They transported her to a local hospital and she was pronounced deceased just before 6 p.m.
The circumstances of the child’s death are still under investigation by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Major Case Unit.
The incident follows several weeks of warnings from local police departments and sheriff’s offices of the dangers of keeping children and pets in vehicles this summer.
In May, an 11-month-old baby girl died after she was left in a hot car while her parents were at church in Palm Bay. In 2020, 1-year-old Jace Leslie died after he was left in a hot car by a caretaker.