A child’s guardian has been arrested in Vagina after leaving the toddler in a hot car, where police found him deceased.
According to WSLS, authorities were summoned to the Chestnut Academy Daycare in Amherst on Thursday around 3:30 p.m. Upon their arrival, they discovered a 2-year-old boy named Hudley Owen Hamlett who was unresponsive.
AccuWeather indicated that the temperatures in Amherst reached approximately 90 degrees outside, on the day in question.
Brian Lee Dalton, who is reported to be the boy’s guardian, had initially intended to drop Hudley at daycare that morning. However, it appears Dalton forgot and went to work, inadvertently leaving the toddler inside the car throughout the day, as stated by WDBJ7.
Amherst County Sheriff’s Office’s Sheriff Jimmy Ayers mentioned there is no evidence suggesting that Dalton intentionally left the child. Ayers noted that Dalton realized Hudley was in the car only when he went to the daycare to collect him.
Once there, the daycare explained to Dalton that he was not at the facility. Dalton then discovered the toddler in the backseat of his vehicle.
During a news briefing, streamed by WSET, Ayers remarked, “It’s just a tragedy that we never, never expect to happen, never should happen, but it’s unfortunate that it did.”
Dalton has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and abuse and neglect of a child.
According to the Sheriff, Dalton has been working with the investigation, and the daycare center is not liable for the boy’s death.
Hudley is the seventh child to have died in a hot car this month and the nineteenth across the nation this year, as per a statement from Jan Null, CCM, an Adjunct Professor of Meteorology, shared with CrimeOnline via email.
[Feature Photo: Amherst County Sheriff’s Office]
