An eleven month old infant has died after being left in a vehicle for approximately two hours, the Walker County Sheriff's Department confirms.
The incident happened in the 900 block of Kensington Road, Chickamauga, Georgia on Saturday.
The grandparents had returned from church and arrived home at approximately 3:00 PM. The grandparents, an adult daughter, and one grandchild exited the vehicle and the male victim, Jaxon Taylor, was left behind.
About two hours later, the mother, Mandie Hendershot, who works a night shift and had been in the residence sleeping awakened and asked where the child was.
It was at that point that the grandparents realized that the child wasn't in the residence.
Upon finding the child in the vehicle, the mother began CPR and 911 was notified at 5:21 PM.
Law enforcement and emergency services arrived at the scene. CPR was continued by emergency personnel and the child was transported to Hutcheson Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
In a Facebook post, Hendershot wrote, "My mind is reeling with this horror, I can't get it to stop from the most feared of all nightmares for every parent.. My eleven month and eight day old infant is dead."
Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson says right now, investigators believe Jaxon's death was an accident.
"Each adult may have thought the other adult had responsibility to get that child out and when they got inside they just did not confirm that, did not communicate that to each other," said Wilson.
The sheriff's office has not received an autopsy report but Wilson says most likely, the cause of death is heat stroke. Researcher Jan Null says on a 90 degree day like yesterday, the car could have reached 140 degrees.
"The physiology of infants and small children is that their bodies heat up a lot faster than an adult on the order of 3-5 times faster than an adult and then that's even compounded more when you have a child who is strapped into a car seat," said Null.
Authorities say charges have not been ruled out yet but nothing will be decided until the investigation is complete.
This is the 19th case of an infant dying in a hot car in the United States this year and the first in Georgia for 2015.
