Inset: Tipora Merriex (Lake City Police Department). Background: The Regal Cinema 90 on U.S. Highway 90 in Lake City, Florida, where Tipora Merriex is accused of leaving her daughter inside a hot car on July 19, 2025 (Google Maps).
Authorities report that a Florida teenager is facing accusations of leaving her 2-year-old daughter in a locked car under extreme temperatures — with a reported heat index of 107 degrees — while she watched the latest “Smurfs” movie at a cinema with her siblings.
Tipora Merriex, 18, is facing charges of felony child neglect for allegedly abandoning her daughter in a 2002 Cadillac Escalade at the Regal Cinema 90 located on U.S. Highway 90 in Lake City, according to local law enforcement.
Police responded to the scene after witnesses called 911 to report Merriex and were forced to break a window to get access to the child.
“I applied a window break to the driver side window after observing the child in the front passenger seat,” an officer says in the arrest report.
Merriex”s daughter was “visibly distressed” when cops found her inside the woman’s vehicle. The child “had a flushed red appearance, was sweating profusely and was crying in distress,” the cop alleges, noting how Merriex’s daughter was inside the Escalade for at least 30 minutes.
Merriex’s arrest report, obtained by Law&Crime on Monday, outlines her “very nonchalant demeanor as her child was in the locked vehicle.” She claimed she “accidentally” locked her daughter inside the car and “acted as though the whole situation wasn’t a big deal as she just stood next to her vehicle,” police said.
Merriex allegedly told police she brought her daughter to see “Smurfs” with her own brother and sister and that while they were watching the movie, the child “kept crying loudly” and caused a “disturbance,” per police.
“Mrs. Merriex said that she brought [her daughter] out to the lobby to keep from disrupting other movie viewers’ experience,” the arrest report alleges.
Cops say Merriex admitted to doing this “a few times” before eventually leaving her daughter in the Escalade. The temperature was 94 degrees at the time, with the heat index of 107, police said. Merriex’s daughter appeared “flushed, sweating, and crying,” according to a Lake City Police press release.
An employee at the Regal Cinema allegedly told investigators that Merriex appeared “very annoyed with her daughter’s crying.” She exited the “Smurfs” showing periodically to go out and check on the victim, according to the arrest report, before allegedly tasking her siblings with performing the task.
“After a few trips of Mrs. Merriex going out to her vehicle, the other two individuals that she had come into the cinema with started alternating out on every other trip,” cops said.
Merriex’s husband later claimed in interviews that she “had a history of very un-rational decision making when it came to her dealing with their daughter’s crying,” according to her arrest report. He accused her of struggling to have “patience” when it comes to caring for the child and having “negative reactions to stress related to being a parent,” the report says.
“Our officers acted swiftly to ensure the safety of this young child,” said Chief of Police Gerald Butler in a statement Monday. “Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle under these conditions is unacceptable. We are thankful the child is safe and urge all parents to prioritize the well-being of their children at all times.”
Merriex is currently being held at the Columbia County Jail on $50,000 bond.
