Bodycam footage shows dad who left two-year-old daughter in hot car to die, frantic with first responders

PIMA COUNTY, AZ - Newly released police bodycam footage shows 37-year-old Christopher Scholtes, dad to the two-year-old girl he left to die in his car on a scorching hot day, getting flustered when police responded to his home on July 9th.

According to NBC News, Scholtes was arrested three days later on July 12th on second-degree murder and child abuse charges by the Marana Police Department (MPD).

Police said that Scholtes arrived home on July 9th and left his daughter, who was sleeping in the backseat of a car, inside with the vehicle on and the air conditioning running. He told detectives that he didn't want to wake her and instead left her there so she could stay sleeping.

Authorities said that the little girl was left in that car, sitting in direct sunlight, for three hours in scorching 109-degree weather. According to the New York Post, when police responded to his home on July 9th and found the man's two-year-old daughter, Parker, clinging to life in the family car, Scholtes broke down. He said to police, "So, I'm being treated like a murderer?"

When police first arrived and were trying to save the little girl, Scholtes appears to be distressed, holding his head in his hands and pacing around the house, as shown in the bodycam footage. He can be heard saying, "Please, baby please. I can't believe this." Police told Scholtes, "She's very hot right now. We're going to do everything we can."

Parker was discovered in critical condition when her mother, an anesthesiologist, came home around 4:00 p.m. and discovered her daughter in the hot car with no AC on. In the footage, Scholtes tells police that he only left Parker outside in the hot car for "no more than 30, 45 minutes" and that he had "checked" on her throughout that time. Court documents state otherwise, revealing he left her in the hot car for nearly three hours.

Court documents also stated that Scholtes made a habit of leaving his three daughters in the hot car. After the tragedy, his wife, Erika Scholtes texted him saying, "I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you?"

The two other children reportedly told police that their father regularly leaves them outside in the car, as stated in a criminal complaint, which added that the father "got distracted playing his game and putting his food away" while his two-year-old was in the scorching hot car dying.

In an exclusive interview with KVOA, a 16-year-old daughter of Scholtes from a previous marriage said that he frequently left her alone inside cars without food for hours at a time, to the point that Child Protective Services took her away from him. 

An interim complaint filed by the Pima County Attorney's Office shows that Scholtes told detectives he arrived home at 2:30 p.m. the day of Parker's death. However, security videos from adjacent homes showed that his car arrived home at 12:53 p.m., just after his two other children arrived home. He can be seen walking from the car to the front door of the house by himself.

The complaint also states that Scholtes knew that he left his daughter in the car and that he knew the car and the AC automatically shut off after 30 minutes. At 4:08 p.m. his wife's car was seeing arriving at the home and the 911 call was made at 4:16 p.m. The complaint said that video surveillance counters what Scholtes said about checking on Parker throughout, saying it "does not show Christopher checking on his vehicle or daughter during this time-frame."

The mother performed CPR on the child until first responders arrived. The child was taken to a hospital via the ambulance, where she was pronounced dead. Detecteives spoke with Scholtes' two other children, ages 9 and five, and they said that their dad "had left all three children alone in the vehicle regularly." Further they said that he "got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away" when their sister was in the car.

Scholtes has since pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges and remains free after his wife previously asked the judge to release him to be home with his family so they could "start the grieving process" together. She said, "This was a big mistake, doesn't represent him." Scholtes is a lifelong resident of Arizona and is unemployed with no history of felony convictions nor prior misdemeanor domestic violence arrests.