On the day he was scheduled to be sentenced for leaving his 2-year-old daughter to die in a sweltering car, Christopher Scholtes was found dead by suicide at his Arizona home, officials said. Scholtes, 38, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and child abuse after the July tragedy, when he left his daughter in a car outside the family home for about three hours as temperatures soared to 109 degrees Fahrenheit, NBC News reports. He said he left her sleeping in her car seat because he didn't want to wake her up. Prosecutors said Scholtes was distracted by video games and knew from past experience that the car and air conditioning would automatically shut off after 30 minutes, despite telling police he left the air on to keep his daughter cool.
Scholtes' wife, a doctor, discovered the child was missing when she returned from work, and she was found unresponsive in the car and pronounced dead soon after at a nearby hospital. "I told you to stop leaving them in the car, How many times have I told you," Scholtes' wife texted him as their daughter was being transported to the hospital. According to court documents, the unemployed father "regularly" left his children in the vehicle. "How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can't be real," Scholtes wrote to his wife on the day of their daughter's death. The couple has two other children, ages 5 and 9, AZFamily reports. Oddly, the family took a trip to Hawaii less than a year after the toddler's death, despite the fact that Scholtes was charged and awaiting trial in the case.
Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said Scholtes' suicide deprived the victim of her day in court. "This little girl's voice was nearly silenced because justice was not served appropriately this morning," Conover said, but added that her office would continue its work on behalf of victims. Scholtes could have faced up to 30 years behind bars.
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