News video shows a school bus outside Kid University daycare in Cordova, Tenn. (WJTV).
Authorities in Tennessee have opened an investigation into a daycare facility after a 6-year-old girl was found unresponsive in the back of one of its buses and later died.
According to local CW Network affiliate WJTV, 6-year-old Winter Jones died Thursday after she was allegedly left inside a hot bus connected to Kid University daycare in Cordova, Tennessee. The station interviewed Winter’s uncle, Christopher Jones, who said the child had nonverbal autism and “couldn’t advocate for herself.”
Memphis Police Department officers were called to the daycare around 3:23 p.m., where they discovered the young girl in need of urgent medical care, local NBC affiliate WMC reported. Winter was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Temperatures in the Memphis area climbed to 97 degrees on Thursday, WMC reported. With the bus doors and windows shut, the temperature inside the vehicle would have risen to an extremely dangerous level.
Winter’s father, Bryan Jones, did not appear on camera, but he told WJTV that his daughter’s internal body temperature was 109 degrees when she was discovered. Christopher Jones, who said he also has a 6-year-old child with nonverbal autism, told the outlet that Winter “couldn’t open her mouth and say, ‘Hey, I’m still on the bus,’ or anything, nothing like that.”
Police have not announced any arrests in the case. The investigation into Winter’s death remains ongoing.
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