US woman arrested after 8-year-old daughter dies from heat in car

A woman in North Carolina was arrested on charges of manslaughter and child abuse by wilful act causing serious injury after her eight-year-old daughter died unattended inside a car.

According to a report with ABC News, the woman, on June 26, had left her daughter inside her car amid hot weather conditions, and went inside her office.

The accused, identified as 36-year-old Ashlee Stallings, told the police she had left the air conditioner of the car on, but “believed her daughter turned the car off because she was cold.”

An affidavit in the case, as cited by the report, stated the accused found her daughter unresponsive on the backseat floorboard as she returned to her vehicle about an hour and a half after last hearing from the girl via text.

The woman found her daughter taking shallow breaths and foaming at the mouth.

She then used a hammer to break open the back window and then attempted to drive to a local hospital before stopping at a business for help, according to the affidavit.

The child was pronounced dead early Thursday, hours after she was transported to a hospital.

Medical staff at the hospital told police the girl suffered brain herniation due to hyperthermia, the affidavit stated.

It also said the woman “admitted she knew the temperature was 94 degrees fahrenheit (nearly 35 degrees Celsius) outside and that she should not have left the victim inside the car alone.”