2-year-old suffocates in abandoned car
It’s no secret that this time of year the heat is on…but a combination of high temperatures, an attractive nuisance and a habit of children minding children has resulted in the tragic death of a Belize City toddler. Jacqueline Woods reports on an incident that occurred on Wednesday on Hibiscus Street in Belize City.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The family of two-year-old Cordell Alexander Jeffords Jr. say the boy’s mother, Oldine Gotoy, is not to be blamed for her son’s tragic death.
Sandra Gotoy, Aunt of the Deceased
“No, no I don’t think that criminal charges should be brought against her because she was at home, she was upstairs. The kids were upstairs with her you know, they were called downstairs. It’s not like they were in the yard playing. They were upstairs on the veranda playing while she was in the house cooking.”
Who called the children down was Jeffords’ eleven-year-old stepsister. Around 11:30 she reportedly led her brother into an abandoned car that was parked in the front yard. The then girl exited the vehicle, leaving the young child sitting in the front passenger seat. Jeffords, who was unable to open the car door, was left inside where the temperature was well above a hundred degrees and climbing.
According to the boy’s aunt, Sandra Gotoy, the children did not tell the mother anything until she called them for lunch and asked them about her son. That’s when the eleven-year-old girl went to the car and found her little brother slumped over between the two front seats.
Sandra Gotoy
“My brother who was at the house with the mother, took him from the child. And he said when he held the child he was very, very hot. He said when he held him it was like he was burning his hands. That’s what he said.”
Jacqueline Woods
“And he was already unconscious?”
Sandra Gotoy
“Yes, he was already unconscious. He was limber, he wasn’t responding to anything.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Was he gasping for air?”
Sandra Gotoy
“According to Oldine, when she rubbed him up with some alcohol, he kind of revived. And while he was at the hospital, he was fighting for his life, she said he vomited about two or three times trying to fight for his life. The doctor said that his brain was swollen due to the heat.”
Young Jeffords died at the K.H.M.H. around midnight. Gotoy says even though her nephew was inside the vehicle for only thirty minutes, it was just too long for a child to survive the intense heat.
Sandra Gotoy
“I feel angry about the incident, because it could have been avoided. If it was a thing that the kids usually play in the car, you could have said, well his ma know he mi the play in the car and she noh do nothing bout it. But it hurt because the car was there for about three to four months and the children have never ever played in the vehicle.”
On Saturday, two-year-old Cordell Alexander Jeffords will be buried following services at the St. Martin De Porres Church.
According to police, the Criminal Investigation Branch has closed their investigation in the case and has sent the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions to see whether criminal charges should be brought against the mother. Meanwhile, the Human Services Department will be providing counselling to the bereaved family.
Using an oven thermometer borrowed from Brodies, we measured the temperature in our own vehicle after an hour in the sun. It read just under one hundred and thirty degrees Fahrenheit.
