{"id":325417,"date":"2026-07-01T01:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325417\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T01:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T01:08:07","slug":"we-are-destroyed-plantation-daycare-mourns-toddler-who-cops-say-was-found-dead-in-dads-suv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325417\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We are destroyed\u2019: Plantation daycare mourns toddler who cops say was found dead in dad\u2019s SUV"},"content":{"rendered":"

PLANTATION, Fla. \u2014 A Plantation daycare owner and staff members say they are devastated after authorities confirmed that a 1-year-old student was found dead Monday inside his father\u2019s SUV<\/a>, describing the loss as one that has shaken their entire school community.<\/p>\n

Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHard for the parents, hard for us,\u201d said Leslie Novoa, owner of A World of Discovery Academy, while holding back tears.<\/p>\n

Novia said the boy attended her daycare, located at 7025 Northwest Fourth Street, where she and staff members had known his family for more than six years.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single child that comes through our school becomes part of our family, and we are destroyed,\u201d said Carolina Quecano, an assistant director of the daycare.<\/p>\n

Novoa said the boy\u2019s father arrived at the daycare Monday afternoon to pick up his son, but staff quickly realized something was wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went out to confirm that the baby was never dropped off at the school and that\u2019s when we found out,\u201d Novoa said.<\/p>\n

According to Novoa, the father then opened the vehicle and made the heartbreaking discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was screaming outside, \u2018Oh my God! Oh my God!\u2019 He was really sad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Novoa called 911, and Plantation police responded, surrounding the SUV with crime scene tape as detectives investigated. A Broward County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office van later arrived while investigators processed the scene. <\/p>\n

The daycare administrators told Local 10 that the boy was the youngest of three siblings. His two older siblings also attended the school, and staff said they had developed a close relationship with the family over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are very nice, never a problem, always supportive,\u201d Quecano said. \u201cThe children are very happy. You could see very loved children.\u201d<\/p>\n

As police continue investigating the circumstances surrounding the child\u2019s death, Quecano urged the community to show compassion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what people are going through and it\u2019s a very important message to put to our community is that we should be supportive, not judgmental,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other parents at the daycare also shared their condolences.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a parent you never want to lose a child,\u201d one mother said.<\/p>\n

Plantation police have said only that the case remains an active investigation and that no additional details are being released at this time.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PLANTATION, Fla. \u2014 A Plantation daycare owner and staff members say they are devastated after authorities confirmed that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-325417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}