Arizona girl, 2, left in car by father on 109-degree day and is found dead

[iamshadow21]

Was one of them for going 138mph?

How did she know he was going 138 mph, as she says in her text? Does the vehicle have some kind of excessive speed text or alert? Can she monitor the car's trip route and speed?

No idea, but he strikes me as the kind of so and so who might brag he did it to scare/upset her after the fact.

MOO

 

[Curiosum]

Wouldn't a separation and a restraining order against him having any contact with the children be a start?

She had already identified his behaviour was extremely dangerous to the children?

My SIL did exactly this in an adjacent state. She is also a physician and the judge revoked the protective order and granted sole custody to my former BIL because he wasn't a busy physician and she truly believed that the child's allegations were coached by her mom.

 

[Herat]

My SIL did exactly this in an adjacent state. She is also a physician and the judge revoked the protective order and granted sole custody to my former BIL because he wasn't a busy physician and she truly believed that the child's allegations were coached by her mom.

That's just awful.

There is no good solution to this situation, but doing nothing but nag the husband without preserving the children's safety is not one of the choices.

 

[abyquinn]

And CPS (IME) would simply have said that SHE needed to protect them from this behaviour as their mother. JMO

I agree, by my experience CPS would’ve done zip, but doctors are mandated reporters. She had an obligation as their mother and as a doctor to do something. His actions weren’t going to improve. As she texted his behavior has gotten worse. She could’ve had live in help but as long as he had access to those girls they were at risk. Short of staying with them 24/7 herself she could not protect them from their father. LE & the courts would not have taken her word or even the word of their girls. This was a tragedy waiting to happen for years.

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

Of course and I agree that's what she should have done. The problem is, she didn't report, even if she had, I wonder if she would have followed their directions. Part of a controlling relationship (if we're following my theory) is that quite often there is a lack of agency, the person feels unable to take any control.

Often that involves financial dependence, but here it was the perp who did not work.
Some details here are now and pretty explosive.

New information released on death of two-year-old Marana girl left in hot car

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — New information on the death of a two-year-old Marana girl left in a hot car.

www.kvoa.com

 

[Herat]

I agree, by my experience CPS would’ve done zip, but doctors are mandated reporters. She had an obligation as their mother and as a doctor to do something. His actions weren’t going to improve. As she texted his behavior has gotten worse. She could’ve had live in help but as long as he had access to those girls they were at risk. Short of staying with them 24/7 herself she could not protect them from their father. LE & the courts would not have taken her word or even the word of their girls. This was a tragedy waiting to happen for years.

She could file for divorce and insist he must leave the home and go into alcohol rehabilitation.

 

[Charlot123]

Since it's been established that one of the charges may be 1st degree murder, I wonder if there is even more evidence regarding a potential motive ...I don't want to speculate yet.

Also, I can't believe their mother, E., stayed with this man for as long as she did. What was she afraid would happen if she left? I think she did love her daughters and the texts released indicate she was mentally "over" him, so why let him stay and keep doing this kind of thing?

Of course he would have tried to take every penny possible in a divorce, but so what? Freedom is priceless.

First, the factor of love and maybe, habit, that plays a role. Even the smartest women get misguided when it comes to their partners. Plus, it is difficult to raise three children alone and be a successful professional. Plus, as I see, both partners are image-driven and image requires being “the pillars of the community”, not a divorced mom with three kids and a loser at his Playstation.

This being said, I suspect a future divorce could be in their cards, that they were slowly drifting apart without recognizing it, but tragedy intervened. Now E. is trying to salvage the remains of the picture-perfect facade that they presented to the world. Parker’s death is a symptom of a dysfunction. CS’s inferiority complex was deepening and IMHO, PS and alcohol are the symptoms of his denialism. In such a situation, immature men would look for another woman (see the Watts case), but CS’s marriage came with many perks. JMO - the only thing that could have saved that ship from a wreckage would be the third child being a boy. Maybe the yet-inexperienced would have temporarily tied CS to the reality. But Parker was one more girl, so here CS was, sloppily babysitting three girls in a new house and waiting for wife’s vacation to be taken somewhere. He was probably playing the role of a good father when his wife was at home, while feeling angry, bored and insecure, and essentially, being a good nurse only to his drink and his VR.

(Nothing against SAH parents, just this very archetype of “what do we do with them”?)

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

It seems like reckless endangerment on the part of AZ to leave those other very young children in that home with him especially now that they are witnesses and he is under a lot of pressure. I hope to be wrong but I could see him doing something even more terrible now. JMOO.

 

[airportwoman]

Since it's been established that one of the charges may be 1st degree murder, I wonder if there is even more evidence regarding a potential motive ...I don't want to speculate yet.

Also, I can't believe their mother, E., stayed with this man for as long as she did. What was she afraid would happen if she left? I think she did love her daughters and the texts released indicate she was mentally "over" him, so why let him stay and keep doing this kind of thing?

Of course he would have tried to take every penny possible in a divorce, but so what? Freedom is priceless.

Good luck finding a lawyer who would go for that if he doesn't have a job himself.

 

[airportwoman]

Oh I can answer that question based on my own life experiences.

Because she watched him take a previous child away from her mother, because she knew he would try and do the same to her and her children, particularly since he was the main 'caregiver' for the children. It's sadly a very common trope, when controlling men realise the relationship is over they want to continue the control via the children. I strongly suspect that CS used coercive control in his relationships, that she had just given up trying to change or argue with him. JMO

I have a feeling there was a LOT more to that story. If I say any more, I'll probably get censored.

 

[Herat]

Often that involves financial dependence, but here it was the perp who did not work.
Some details here are now and pretty explosive.

New information released on death of two-year-old Marana girl left in hot car

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — New information on the death of a two-year-old Marana girl left in a hot car.

www.kvoa.com

The toxicology screen is negative for alcohols or drugs of abuse. There is some note about a presumptive positive for caffeine, but it does not appear it was sent for confirmatory testing for caffeine. Not clear why this would be tested.

"One of the kids said Scholtes had left them in the car alone about 59 times in the past."
This is sort of an odd statement. It presumably would come from the 9 year old. I wonder how they came to the number of 59. Did it correspond with a number of times he was the babysitter and have the children in the car - as if LE went through a calendar to determine how many days he was taking care of the children. It sounds as though he ALWAYS left the kids alone in the car. Awful.

 

[iamshadow21]

The toxicology screen is negative for alcohols or drugs of abuse. There is some note about a presumptive positive for caffeine, but it does not appear it was sent for confirmatory testing for caffeine. Not clear why this would be tested.

It's his tox screen I want to see.

 

[airportwoman]

This text from her is in the affidavit:

March 21st: “Why were you going 138 with our baby in the car with alcohol in your system?

Some of you wondered how she knew this. They may have some kind of tracker on their car. My insurance offered me a discount if I did that, and I said no way.

 

[airportwoman]

My SIL did exactly this in an adjacent state. She is also a physician and the judge revoked the protective order and granted sole custody to my former BIL because he wasn't a busy physician and she truly believed that the child's allegations were coached by her mom.

Was it the right thing to do in this case? You know these people; I (probably) don't.

 

[airportwoman]

The toxicology screen is negative for alcohols or drugs of abuse. There is some note about a presumptive positive for caffeine, but it does not appear it was sent for confirmatory testing for caffeine. Not clear why this would be tested.

Toxicology screens, the type that take several weeks or months, can detect metabolites of drugs that were ingested days earlier.

I haven't seen any stories from people who said they knew either of them. That's strange to me.

 

[Charlot123]

Of course and I agree that's what she should have done. The problem is, she didn't report, even if she had, I wonder if she would have followed their directions. Part of a controlling relationship (if we're following my theory) is that quite often there is a lack of agency, the person feels unable to take any control.

The only situation that really helps is if her parents are so reliable that she could report the husband and temporarily leave her kids with the parents knowing she can 100% rely on them. But we don’t know what her situation was in this regard. Any other option takes time and energy. It is the era when a nuclear family doesn’t exist, when women finally got the career options but if they also want to be the mothers, they are on their own.

 

[Arkay]

It seems like reckless endangerment on the part of AZ to leave those other very young children in that home with him especially now that they are witnesses and he is under a lot of pressure. I hope to be wrong but I could see him doing something even more terrible now. JMOO.

I feel the same, as you have said and as several other posters have mentioned, as well.

More info has emerged and the charge was upgraded to Murder One. WHY WHY WHY is he in that home with his minor children and a wife who seems unwilling or unable to protect her remaining children from him?

I feel great anxiety that he may commit suicide, murder (again), or indeed a family annihilation.

I was a teacher for 25 years. The laws in NY are super strict about mandated reporting. I would report anything that a child told me about abuse, or indeed anything that I read in a student’s essay, which often was the way a child felt comfortable to share.

My students were 8th graders, not toddlers. This poor baby had no means to disclose how she was being abused.

The mother is not just a mandated reporter like me, but the MOTHER. I cannot grasp why she didn’t put her daughters’ safety above whatever her personal needs may have been.

Had she known nothing about his routine torment, I would consider her a victim. I don’t consider her an actual accomplice, except that in doing nothing she enabled the inevitable.

JMO

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

WHY IN THE HELL HAS THIS GUY NOT BEEN REMANDED INTO CUSTODY?!!!

Those other children, witnesses, are endangered by being in that home. It is unacceptable. I am going to write and call the governor. Someone needs to intervene before this tragedy gets worse.

 

[LifeIsAMystery]

So proud of every one of those three girls speaking the truth and honouring their sister by doing so.

MOO

He could definitely retaliate, why are THEIR lives now at risk?!!!

 

[Herat]

This might have been his MO:

"Investigators were able to obtain surveillance video from July 9th, the day the Scholtes’ daughter died. They determined he was at a local grocery store prior without his children with him likely left in the car, before returning to the home he stopped at a gas station, walked inside, and was seen on video entering the restroom with a case of beer, he walked out beer in hand never purchasing the item."

He walks into a gas station and takes the case of 24 beers into the restroom. There he can consume any number of beers without them being found by his wife. Presumably, the gas station finds a number of empty beer cans in the restroom and he doesn't end up bringing beer cans with him that his wife could find.

There just are no words.