Police in Georgia have arrested the father of 15-month-old twin girls after he left them in a hot auto in western Georgia, where outside temperatures were in the 90s.
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Carrollton Police Department’s Captain Chris Dobbs said North’s neighbors heard his screams and came to help him to try to resuscitate the girls, who were identified as Ariel and Alaynah North. The girls were rushed to Tanner Medical Center where they were pronounced dead.
Autopsies were performed Friday morning on the two 15-month-old twins, but investigators said it could be weeks before they will have results.
Outside temperatures were in the 90s shortly before police were called at about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could be contacted for comment.
“No one has come forward saying they saw the father pull the kids from vehicle”.
“We do believe alcohol is involved”, Dobbs said, adding that they were awaiting the results of blood tests to determine his alcohol level.
The twins’ mother, who is not married to North but lives with him, was not in town at the time, he said. Dobbs said neighbors then saw the father running around back, carrying the girls. He should have never been in the house asleep.
It was not clear who discovered the girls in the back of the auto. “He should have got the kids out of the auto the time he got out of the vehicle”.
When officers arrived on the scene, neighbors were holding the twin girls in a pool.
The girls are the 25th and 26th children to die in the U.S. this year in hot vehicles, more than double the number by this point last summer, said Janette Fennell, president and founder of KidsAndCars.org.
Temperatures inside a auto can reach a deadly 125 degrees very quickly, with 80 percent of the increase happening in the first 10 minutes, her group warns on its website.
The front of the building is covered with several TV satellite dishes, and police tape was still in place behind the duplexes Friday morning as some residents left for work and a nurse returned home from an overnight shift. The trial is expected to begin in September.
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Nationwide, the girls who died in Carrollton are the 25th and 26th children to die this year in hot vehicles, more than double the number who had died by this point in the summer during 2015, said Janette Fennell, president and founder of KidsAndCars.org, a group that tracks such deaths each year.
