Police are investigating a couple who left their two young children unattended in extreme heat at Smithville Lake in Clay County on Monday afternoon. One was found inside a car.
According to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, two phone calls were received around 4 p.m., reporting a vehicle that had pulled off on West Highway Bridge at Smithville Lake near a boat ramp and what looked like a man assaulting someone, possibly a woman, or standing over a child.
Sarah Boyd, spokesperson for Clay County Sheriff’s Office , said they aren’t sure what those individuals saw, but knew that police needed to investigate. Deputies found the vehicle with the front two doors open, and a 2-year old boy strapped in a car seat. No adults were in sight.
“The 2-year old was red and sweating profusely, and deputies quickly took the toddler out of the car and brought him into one of their air conditioned cars,” Boyd said.
According to the Clay County sheriff’s Facebook page, deputies reported their in-car thermometers said the temperature was 100 to 102 degrees at the scene.
After the toddler was safely in air conditioning, other deputies arrived and followed a trail to the lake, searching for the parents or whoever the toddler was with.
Deputies found a man and woman, passed out on a blanket with a baby in between them, by the lake. The baby, less than a year old, was pale and lethargic. The man and woman appeared intoxicated, Boyd told The Star. A large amount of alcohol was found in their possession.
Deputies took the baby to an air conditioned car, and asked the man and woman if they knew where their toddler was. The suspects responded that the toddler was with them. Police told them that they had left their toddler strapped inside the car.
Both children were take to a hospital and are now in the custody of the Missouri Children’s Division. The woman was taken to a hospital for vomiting and dehydration, and the man was booked into the Clay County Detention Center, according to Boyd.
Neither suspect has been charged yet, Boyd told The Star. Charges are pending lab results, but the case has been turned over the the prosecutor’s office.
Boyd told The Star this is the first report so far this summer of children left in heat in Clay County.
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