According to police, a teen mother left her baby in a car on a hot day to watch a kid’s movie.
On Saturday, the Florida mother was watching Smurfs at a movie theater when the incident occurred.
Tipora Merriex, 18, left a Lake City Regal Cinema with her baby after the child continued to cry throughout the film, according to a police statement.
She then loaded the 2-year-old into a 2002 Cadillac Escalade, leaving the child behind to finish the movie screening, according to police.
“Witnesses confirmed Merriex remained inside the building while the child remained alone in extreme heat conditions,” according to the agency.
Officials reported that the outside temperature was 94 degrees with a heat index of 107.
When police arrived around 6 p.m., the toddler was “visibly distressed.”
Officers had to break through a window to get the child.
According to police, her daughter was “flushed, sweating, and crying” as she was removed from the vehicle.
The baby had been in the car for at least thirty minutes.
According to Law & Crime, the teenager was “nonchalant” about the incident and did not consider it a “big deal.”
Merriex was with her younger siblings during the incident.
According to the report, she even sent them outside to check on the baby during the movie.
She claimed she had accidentally locked herself out of the car.
“Our officers acted quickly to ensure the safety of this young child,” Lake City Police Chief Gerald Butler stated in a release.
“Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle under these conditions is unacceptable.”
Data collected from 1998 to 2024
Since 1998, NoHeatStroke.org has been tracking child deaths in hot cars, providing one of the most comprehensive databases on the subject.
According to researchers, the site, along with the nonprofit Kids and Car Safety, fills a critical gap caused by the lack of standardized reporting across the nation. The finding was reported in a study published last year in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.
Almost three-fourths of children who died of vehicular heatstroke, also known as vehicular hyperthermia, were 2 years old or younger.
Although 53% had been forgotten in parked automobiles, 24% got into a vehicle on their own.
The 10 states where pediatric vehicular heatstroke was most common are Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The mother was released from jail on Tuesday following her arrest for child neglect.
“We are thankful the child is safe and urge all parents to prioritize the well-being of their child at all times,” according to Butler.
When WJAX-TV went to her house after her arrest, her younger siblings informed them that the baby was fine.
Last year, 39 children died in hot cars, according to the National Safety Council.
So far in 2025, 15 children have died as a result of being left in hot vehicles.
According to NoHeatStroke.org data, the most common scenario is when the child is left in the car.
