Rhonda Charmane Jewell, 46, left a 10-month-old infant in a car that reached the temperature of 133 degrees Fahrenheit, deputies said. (Mugshot: Baker County Sheriff’s Office)
A babysitter is accused of leaving an infant girl in a car that experienced searing temperatures, leading to her death. Deputies in Baker County, Florida, did not name the 10-month-old victim, but Sheriff Scotty Rhoden highlighted “the magnitude of the tragedy felt throughout our county yesterday.”
“As the Sheriff of a small community, posting the details of this tragedy is very hard for me,” he wrote in a Facebook post published Thursday. “The facts of the tragedy are below, but I am asking my community to respect the privacy of the victim’s family and to please join me in prayer for the family and everyone involved.”
Deputies claimed that Rhonda Charmane Jewell, 46, picked up the 10-month-old girl from the mother’s home in the city of Macclenny at approximately 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
She had been babysitting the girl on and off since June, investigators said. That day, she was supposed to look after a total of four children, which included the victim.
