A 40-year-old Virginia woman has been charged with murder for leaving an 11-month-old child and a dog in a hot car, resulting in their deaths.
Kristen Danielle Graham, 40, has been charged with one felony count of murder and is being held without bond at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail.
Graham was given responsibility of 11-month-old Myrical Wicker by her 17-year-old mother for two days.
She had been alone in the car for approximately eight and a half hours.
How The Child Was Found
The child was discovered dead in a black plastic bag in the back of a car by emergency room personnel at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News.
What Officials Gathered
Officials say Graham received a phone call from her friend around 1am on September 12 asking her to bring cigarettes.
Her friend couldn’t buy them herself because she was caring for an elderly person in Newport News at that time.
Graham put the child and dog in the back of the car, went to a 7-Eleven to get the cigarettes and spent some ‘considerable’ time at her friend’s place.
She then drove back to York County at 8am and left the baby and dog in the car with the windows rolled up.
She ‘Woke up’ Too Late
At around 2.30pm, Graham ‘woke up’ when she received a phone call and went out to check on the dog and baby.
Both the baby and dog were dead by that point.
Court Heard
Court documents show 80-year-old Paul Kudlaty brought the deceased infant to Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in a trash bag. He is not facing charges.
The sheriff added that Graham has given conflicting accounts of why the child and dog were left in the vehicle.
He said that the office was investigating if she deliberately went into the house and left them both in the car.
Sheriff Montgomery further said in his statement: ‘These are not typical situations that we deal with in York County, and when you do come across the death of a child, it affects everyone — the investigators, the law enforcement people there, the EMS people that have to respond to these types of things.
‘And I can tell you that the mood of the agency today when we had a briefing on it this morning is somewhat shock and disbelief, even though we’re professionals and we have to do everything we possibly can do to do a thorough, professional investigation.’
He said that investigators are trying to figure out how hot the inside of the vehicle would have been before the two dead bodies were discovered.
The sheriff mentioned that Graham would often babysit the child often and care for her ‘friend of a friend’s baby’.
Police officials have not revealed the name of the 17-year-old mother and information about the dog.
