Arizona dad facing up to 30 years for daughter's hot car death is found dead

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An Arizona father facing at least 20 years in prison for leaving his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car while he played video games has died by suicide, prosecutors said.

The Pima County Attorney's Office announced on Wednesday, Nov. 5, that 38-year-old Christopher Scholtes died on Tuesday night. Scholtes, whose body was found in central Phoenix, had been scheduled to appear in court that day so he could taken into custody ahead of his formal sentencing for his daughter's death.

As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors announced Oct. 22, Scholtes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and intentional child abuse, the county attorney's office said. As part of the agreement, Scholtes was facing 20 to 30 years in prison and would have been ineligible for early release.

“This is obviously extraordinarily complicated, and we extend our deepest sympathies and sorrow to all the loved ones who have suffered the loss of this beautiful baby girl and now another loss to his family,” Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said in a video statement.

Here's what else to know.

Christopher Scholtes: 'I killed our baby'

On July 9, 2024, Scholtes told investigators that he left his 2-year-old daughter in the car outside the family's home in Marana, a town about 100 miles south of Phoenix, so she could sleep but that he thought the air conditioning was running. The girl's mother found her hours later, with the A/C automatically turned off, and outside temperatures in the triple digits.

Court documents obtained by USA TODAY show Scholtes told investigators he regularly left all three of his daughters alone in the car.

While the 2-year-old girl was being rushed to the hospital, Scholtes got multiple text messages from his wife, Erika, saying she had reminded him multiple times to "stop leaving them in the car," according to the documents.

Scholtes apologized, writing: "Babe I'm sorry! ... Babe our family. How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can't be real."

Video surveillance footage obtained by the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson showed that earlier that day, Scholtes shoplifted beer at a convenience store and a grocery store and apparently drank several of them in a bathroom while leaving the girl in the car.

In an interview with police, one of Scholtes' older daughters told police her father “still drinks too much beer,” the Star reported.

“He keeps leaving us in the car when my mom told him to stop doing this,” she said. “That’s how he made my baby sister die.”

Scholtes' wife, an anesthesiologist, stood by her husband after the girl's death and told a judge he was a "pillar of the community" who had made a "big mistake." She spoke at a hearing just days after the death and argued for his release.

“I’m just asking if you can allow him to come home to us so that we can all start the grieving process so he can bury our daughter with us ... and that we can go through this whole process together as a family,” Erika Scholtes told the judge.

Scholtes faced national scrutiny in the weeks and months after the girl's death and drew attention when he was granted court approval to travel to Hawaii for a family vacation in May, reported The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network. Scholtes took the vacation over the objections of prosecutors.

In her video statement Wednesday, Conover addressed the girl’s two older sisters, telling them they can still “survive and thrive” despite the deaths of their baby sister and father.

“When you look back at this time as the years follow, may you not feel tied down by what happened here, but rather lifted up by your baby sister’s wings from up above on a very sad and difficult day like today," Conover said.

Hot car deaths in context

Every year across the United States, parents leave their children in hot cars, most of the time by accident as they juggle work and their children, according to Kids and Car Safety, a group trying to educate the public about the problem. In many cases, children figure out how to enter the car by themselves and get locked in.

This year, 30 babies and children in the United States have died in hot cars, according to the group. Police and prosecutors frequently decline to pursue cases against parents who have either just made the worst mistake of their lives or didn't know their child was trapped in their car.

Part of what made Scholtes' case stand out is that he intentionally left his daughter in the car, though he said he had forgotten she was there. While his daughter was in the car, court records show, he unloaded groceries and played video games.

One of the biggest problems contributing to hot car deaths is that many parents don't think it could happen to them, said Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety, a group trying to educate the public about the problem.

"People think that there's just absolutely no way under any condition that this could happen, that someone could actually unknowingly leave their child in their car," she told USA TODAY. "They think, 'This must be a monster.'"

Contributing: Amaris Encinas