A three-year-old girl from Arkansas has died and her baby sister has been left clinging to life after the children were found in the back of their mother’s car outside their home while she was napping inside.
The Arkansas State Police said in a press release on Tuesday that police in Booneville got a 911 call at around 2pm the day before from 21-year-old Kaylee Petchenik, saying her two daughters were missing.
Petchenik told police that she discovered the disappearance of her children, three-year-old Laykn and 15-month-old Olivia, after she woke up from an afternoon nap.
Kaylee Petchenik, 21 (left), woke up from a nap on Monday afternoon to find her daughters, Laykn, three, and Olivia, one, missing
An officer responded to Petchenik’s home in Booneville, Arkansas, and found both her children lying unconscious in the back of her parked car
An officer was sent to the family’s home in the 480 block of West 5th Street and discovered both girls lying unconscious on the back floorboard of their mother’s parked car.
Laykn Petchenik was rushed to a local hospital where she was later pronounced dead. An autopsy will be performed to determine the toddler’s cause and manner of death.
Her younger sister was transported to a hospital in Little Rock, where she was listed in stable but critical condition.
‘Both are the apparent victims of heat,’ State Police has concluded.
A neighbor told 5News how the young mother had approached his house and asked if he had seen her kids when she discovered they were missing Monday.
‘I was sitting out of my porch around 11 o’clock and my neighbor Kaylee, the mom has came outside and looked concerned and worried and she came up to and asked if I had seen her kids,’ said neighbor Matthew Wood.
He said that Petchenik works night shifts and said she had locked her door before she went to sleep.
‘The mother works night shifts. She was asleep, she had laid down for a nap. She said she had locked her doors and when she woke up the door was open and the kids were gone,’ Wood added.
The neighbor was also with the officer when the little girls were found and said that he ‘froze up at the sight’.
‘I was standing next to him when we looked down and saw them in the car, but I kind of froze up at the sight,’ Wood said.
‘I’m not going to lie. He opened the door, screamed for EMS and grabbed both of them and rushed them to the hospital.
‘Knowing that little girl only got 3 years of life and the only thing I can do now is that the youngest one makes it out fine,’ he said.
Laykn, pictured left in her car seat behind her mother, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Her 15-month-old sister (right) was listed in stable but critical condition
According to AccuWeather.com, temperatures in Booneville soared into the high 90s around midday on Monday.
Robert Darby, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told NWA the heat index that day would have been 1010 degrees.
According to scientific data, on a 95-degree day it would take 30 minutes for the temperature inside a vehicle to reach a scorching 129 degrees.
The press release from ASP did not say how the two young girls ended up in the vehicle or how long they may have bee there for.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, a State Police spokesperson declined to disclose any additional details concerning the circumstances of the incident, citing an ongoing investigation.
Special agents of the Arkansas State Police Criminal Investigation Division will submit a case file to the Logan County prosecuting attorney for consideration.
A GoFundMe page was established to cover the funeral expenses for Laykn which had raised almost $3,000 as of Wednesday night.
Petchenik posted many pictures of her daughters to social media the information section on her account reads ‘love my little family’.
‘Time has definitely flown by fast! Its hard to believe that you are already this big!’ she wrote in a post for Laykn’s second birthday in March 2019.
‘You most definitely have a one of a kind personality and me watching you grow every day is one of the best parts of being your momma!!
‘It’s crazy to think that in 5 more days her little sister will be coming into this world! I know she’s just as excited as we are for miss Olivia to be here!’ she added.
According to the advocacy group KidsAndCars.org, there have been 11 child hot car deaths so far this year.
On average, 39 children die of vehicular heatstroke each year.