As temperatures rose, a one-year-old girl died because her father forgot she was in his car while he went about his day.
As temperatures rose to 86°F, baby Olivia Ancelet of Australia was locked in the back of the car. Her whereabouts were only found when her father, Etienne Ancelet, drove to her childcare center to pick her up yesterday (February 4) at approximately 5:35 p.m. local time.
Olivia was born in December, and investigators are trying to figure out how she passed away. According to what is known, Ancelet got her in the car and drove her to the Jelly Beings Early Learning Centre in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood.
A ‘kid being spotted unresponsive in a vehicle’ prompted authorities to notify the daycare, and when they arrived, the infant was declared dead.
Hours after he believed he had dropped Olivia off, Ancelet went back to his car to discover the heartbreaking reality.
Ancelet and Olivia’s mother, Kim Visconti, called their daughter the “light of our lives” and a “sweet and beautiful baby” in a joint statement to news.com.au.
“We are humbled and grateful for the time we had her. We are devastated by what has unfolded,” the pair said, adding how they ‘do not wish this on any parent’.
“We will always cherish our time with our beautiful girl. She was loved by all that knew her,” they said. “It is an unimaginable time of sorrow for us.”
Roy Gomes, who hurried to Olivia’s rescue, told Sky News how he heard Ancelet’s frantic screams and attempted to revive her for five minutes.
“My neighbour came across and he said, ‘Can you hear that screaming?’, so I turned the lawnmower off,” he explained. “When I got there, I saw the [Ancelet] with the baby in [his] arms and he was just panicking.”
“We didn’t know what to do, I said, ‘Let’s try and give her CPR, do our best’.”
“[Ancelet] was screaming, poor guy, he kept screaming saying, ‘I’ve killed my daughter,’” Gomes continued in an interview with NewsWire.
“All the neighbours were really good, putting water on her (and) trying to cool her down, because she was obviously still very hot,” he stated.
“She was just floppy. I didn’t sleep much last night, just because I could see the little baby’s face all night, but it’s just something you do.”
“Leaving a child in a vehicle at any time can be dangerous,” stated Christine McDonald, the superintendent of police for New South Wales, during a press conference yesterday (February 4). It can be fatal to leave a child inside a car for a lengthy amount of time.
“This is an absolute tragedy.”
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