Toddler’s car death devastates his family

Published 8:20 am Thursday, April 9, 2009

LYNNWOOD — The family of a baby boy who was found dead in a car Monday is devastated, praying and preparing to say their final goodbyes.

“They are deeply hurting and are calling for prayer,” said the Rev. Bethany Hull Somers of the Mount Vernon Church of the Nazarene, where funeral services are planned for Friday.

The service is expected to be led by the Rev. Jose Luis Nolazco of Iglesia Roca Fuerte, a Spanish-language Nazarene congregation.

Nolazco said Wednesday that he wasn’t in a position to speak about the family and their loss.

Joshua “Joshie” Michael Delacruz was found unresponsive by his mother at 2 p.m. Monday, Lynnwood police spokeswoman Shannon Sessions said.

The 14-month-old toddler’s mother left him after 7 a.m. in the car parked outside her work at a Lynnwood nursing home, Sessions said.

She returned to the car seven hours later and found Joshie unresponsive. The woman, 21, of Everett, rushed the boy inside to seek help. Efforts by paramedics to revive Joshie were unsuccessful.

Joshie’s mother on Monday was arrested and briefly jailed for investigation of second-degree manslaughter. She was released pending further investigation and has not been charged.

The investigation in Joshie’s death likely will take weeks, Sessions said.

“Our little Joshie was loved so much; he brought so much joy to everyone who knew him,” the boy’s family wrote in an obituary in The Herald. “Although Joshie was only with us for a short time he will always be in our hearts. His smile of sunshine will never be forgotten.”

A search warrant unsealed Wednesday said the child appeared to have been dead for hours when aid crews arrived. He was described as being “very warm” and with no obvious signs of trauma, prompting police at the scene to suggest in court papers that “something heat related” was the most likely cause of death.

The boy died on one of the warmest days of the year so far; the high temperature recorded at Paine Field that day was 69 degrees.

Joshie’s mother was described as distraught and frantic. She told police that she had been running late for work that morning. She mentioned something about child care — the search warrant isn’t clear — and also talked of having left the child in the car, according to court papers. The woman reportedly recognized there was a problem after 2 p.m. when she “realized that she had not seen those associated with the child’s care,” the search warrant said.

The woman said she found the boy in his car seat, took him out and yelled for help.

“I am such a bad mother,” the woman told police, according to the search warrant affidavit.

She agreed to the police search of her car. Among the items kept as evidence were a child’s car seat, a baby bottle, a small bottle of children’s Tylenol and a child’s left shoe.

The Snohomish County medical examiner said the cause of the boy’s death is still being investigated.

Lynnwood detectives plan to collect additional evidence and forward the case to Snohomish County prosecutors for consideration, Sessions said.

Each year about three dozen children nationally die unattended in a car, experts said. In about half the cases, the children have been forgotten. About 30 percent of the deaths occur when the child decides to play in the car without an adult’s knowledge. About 20 percent of the deaths involve an adult who intentionally leaves a child behind.

It is against state law and Lynnwood municipal code to leave a child under 7 unattended in a vehicle. Somebody at least 12 must be present.

People are charged with second-degree manslaughter in cases where prosecutors believe the death was the unintentional result of negligence. The state must prove recklessness in first-degree manslaughter cases.

Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437, jholtz@heraldnet.com