Background: 3200 block of Preston Rd. in Frisco, Texas (Google Maps). Inset: Vanessa Esquivel (Collin County (Texas) Jail).
A Texas woman is behind bars after police say she deliberately left her infant locked inside a hot car with no air conditioning, leading to the child”s death.
Vanessa Esquivel, 27, is charged with murder in Frisco, police announced in a statement on Thursday. According to law enforcement, Esquivel’s child died on Aug. 16 after Esquivel “intentionally” left the baby in the car for hours as temperatures climbed into the mid-90s.
Esquivel “had arrived at her work in the 3200 block of Preston Road at approximately 2:00 p.m.,” the police statement said. “At that time, detectives believe Esquivel intentionally left her 15-month-old child for over two hours in a vehicle she knew did not have working air conditioning with an outside temperature of at least 95 degrees.”
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Weather tracking services recorded the high in Dallas that day as 96 degrees.
Investigators were tipped off to the infant’s death after being called to the Medical City Plano hospital. Police say that Esquivel’s actions in Frisco, a city in the northern part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, endangered the child and caused injury that resulted in the baby’s death.
Esquivel was arrested on Aug. 20, the statement said. Online records indicate that she is still in custody at the Collin County Jail on a $250,000 bond as of Friday.
Court and jail records do not indicate an upcoming court date for Esquivel.
If convicted, she faces a sentence of five years to life in prison.
