3-Year-Old Girl Dies After She’s Found Unconscious in Hot Car Alongside Her Mother: Reports

The child’s mother has been charged with manslaughter, according to multiple reports

A mother in California has reportedly been charged with manslaughter over the death of her 3-year-old daughter.

The Anaheim Police Department said that Sandra Hernandez, 41, was arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter and felony child neglect after she and her daughter were found unconscious in a car in North Fashion Lane in Anaheim, according to NBC Los Angeles, KABC-TV and the Los Angeles Times.

Officials said officers responded to the area at around 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, after receiving reports of a medical emergency, per the outlets. A family member reportedly found the mother and child locked in the car on a day when temperatures outside the vehicle hit 104 degrees.

The family member pulled the 3-year-old out of the car and provided emergency aid to the child before first responders got to the scene. The girl and her mother were then transported to the hospital, where the 3-year-old was pronounced dead.

Police said, per the outlets, that complications from heat stroke are suspected as the child’s primary cause of death, per NBC Los Angeles and KABC-TV. An autopsy has been scheduled to confirm this and the exact time of death, per the Los Angeles Times.

Hernandez was treated at the hospital and interviewed by police before being booked into the Anaheim Police Department Detention Facility, per the outlets.

Officers reportedly found empty alcohol containers inside the car and noted that Hernandez and her daughter had been locked inside the vehicle for an unknown period before the family member discovered them.

The Anaheim Police Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the incident.

The 3-year-old girl was identified by family members to the Los Angeles Times and KABC-TV as Ily Ruiz.

Nancy Salamanca, a cousin of the girl’s father, remembered the child as “a beautiful and innocent soul with a very loving and bubbly personality,” in a GoFundMe set up for the family in the wake of the 3-year-old’s death.

“It’s still hard to wrap our minds around the thought ILY is no longer with us,” the GoFundMe post read. “She has been tragically taken from our family in such an unfathomable way, and all we want to do is ease the burden and pain her father Juan and the family are going through at this time.”

Salamanca shared with KABC-TV that her cousin was still mourning his daughter, saying, “Ily was his princess, his daughter. He loves his kids. That’s what he lives for.”

According to the National Safety Council there have been 31 child hot car deaths reported so far in the U.S. in 2024. The year prior, there were 29 deaths.