A Texas father is behind bars after his 2-year-old daughter was found inside a locked car outside their home, where temperatures had climbed close to 100 degrees.
CBS News reported on Wednesday, July 29, that Lorenzo Elias Rodriguez, 25, was arrested over the weekend and charged with one count of capital murder of a person under 10 years old.
According to an official release by the Midland Police Department on Monday, July 27, the officers were called to a home on East Pecan Avenue around 7:56 p.m. Sunday after reports of an unresponsive child locked inside a vehicle.
Investigators said Rodriguez’s family grew concerned after losing contact with him earlier that day, following a night in which he had reportedly been drinking. Relatives went to check on him and, after knocking with no answer, removed a window air conditioning unit to get inside the home.
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They found Rodriguez asleep and woke him around 8 p.m. Police said he had been asleep since roughly 11 a.m.
“The brother and sister-in-law were unable to locate the child inside the residence,” the release states.
However, the relatives went out to check for the toddler and found her inside a black Kia that was not running. They broke the car’s window to reach her and rushed her to Midland Memorial Hospital, but she did not survive.
According to Law&Crime, Rodriguez remains held in the Midland County Jail without bond, and no court date has been set yet.
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