The mother of the 3-year-old girl who was found dead in a hot car in California , sitting alongside her while she was 'intoxicated' and unconscious, had lost her two young sons to a drunk driver a decade prior.
Anaheim police arrested the toddler's mother, Sandra Hernandez-Cazares, 42, after finding her unconscious and the child, named Ily, dead in the car. Hernandez-Cazares was arrested after police reportedly discovered several empty alcohol bottles in the vehicle.
It turns out that the mom had actually once been an activist who helped tighten DUI laws in California, after losing her five-year-old and nine-year-old sons to a drunk driver in 2012 during a family vacation at a North Dakota campground after a drunk driver ran over their tent.
In a Southern California heatwave with temperatures soaring into triple digits , officials suspect the preliminary cause of death to be complications from heat stroke, pending an official autopsy report.
Prosecutors revealed that Hernandez-Cazares had a blood alcohol content nearly four times the state legal limit for driving. She now faces charges of felony involuntary manslaughter and felony child abuse causing great bodily injury. She could face a maximum sentence of 12 years for both charges if found guilty.
According to prosecutors, the family became involved in the incident when Hernandez-Cazares failed to pick up her 5-year-old son from elementary school. Her family began searching for her.
Both mother and daughter were eventually discovered inside a locked Ford Expedition parked in front of their Anaheim apartment. Emergency services responded to a call around 4:20 p.m. Friday and found that a relative had broken the car window to remove the daughter.
The incident occurred when the outside temperature was a blistering 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to police reports. Prosecutors revealed that doctors estimated the young girl had been dead for several hours before she was discovered.
The victim was identified as Ily Ruiz by the Orange County Sheriff's Department. A GoFundMe page has been set up by her cousin, Nancy Salamanca, to assist Ily's father, Juan Ruiz, with funeral expenses.
"He's broken, you know, Ily was his princess, his daughter, he loves his kids, that's what he lives for," Salamanca shared in an interview with KABC-TV.
In a video posted on his Facebook , Juan expressed his grief over the death of his 3-year-old daughter. "I wish I was making this up, but no, my daughter really is dead due to the negligence of her mother," he said.
"Right now, my 5-year-old son is with his aunt. She's got a temporary placement for him. I've got to go to court on the 11th to see if the state will give me my son back because I all I have left... is my dog right here. I need help," he added.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration highlights the risks of heatstroke in children, noting that a child's body temperature can rise three to five times faster than an adult's. Heatstroke can occur when a child's body temperature reaches around 104 degrees.
According to the agency's records, at least 29 children died from vehicular heatstroke last year.
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