VERNAL, Utah — A Vernal father was arrested and faces reckless child abuse homicide charges after a 7-month-old child died earlier this week after being inside a hot vehicle alone for more than two hours.
The temperature inside the vehicle where the unidentified child was left was estimated to be at least 131 degrees.
Tommy Dean Platero, 34, was taken into custody Tuesday by the Vernal Police Department.
Police were originally called to the Uintah Basin Hospital Emergency Department following the death of the child, who had a recorded internal temperature of 109 degrees.
Platero is a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employee and told police that he had left his home in Vernal to take the child to a daycare. However, he claimed that he had forgotten to take the child to the daycare facility, and instead went to work, parking in the DWR Northeast Region Office parking lot.
The child had been left in the car seat, unable to free themselves, with the vehicle shut off and windows up.
Platero left the child at 12:51 p.m. and didn't remember he had left them inside the car until 3:30 p.m. When Platero returned to his car in the office lot, he found his child not blinking or breathing, and foam was on the child's mouth.
Investigators later found the internal temperature of the vehicle to be between 131 degrees to 151 degrees Fahrenheit while the child was inside.
The Vernal Police Department stated, "The members of the Vernal Police Department extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected by this tragic loss."
