ROANOKE, Va. (AP) _ Roanoke police are investigating the death of a 2-year-old girl who was left in a van for an extended period of time. Police spokesman Scott Leamon says in a news release that authorities received a report of an unresponsive child at 4:27 p.m. Sunday. Emergency responders pronounced the girl dead at the scene. Leamon says a preliminary investigation indicates that a parent accidentally left the girl in a car seat in the van. The van was parked in the driveway of a residence. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Roanoke reached 90 degrees Sunday afternoon. Leamon says the investigation is continuing.
(Continue reading for Roanoke Police Dept. news release)
On August 31, 2014 at approximately 4:27 p.m. Roanoke Police were called to the 1500 block of Kenwood Boulevard SE to investigate a report of an unresponsive child that was found in a car seat in a vehicle parked in the driveway of a residence. Roanoke Fire-EMS was the first on the scene and pronounced the child deceased. Officers and detectives interviewed family members, witnesses and gathered potential physical evidence. At this stage of the investigation, it appears that the child, a two year old girl, was accidentally left in the closed van by a parent for an extended period of time. The child was taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. Detectives continue to investigate this offense and have been in consultation with the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office with the ongoing investigation.
