Baby Left In Overheated Car, Dies

A baby girl died in her mother’s parked car when temperatures rose into the 80s outside - and to 116 degrees inside the vehicle, authorities said Monday.

Kasey Westlake, 11 months old, died of hyperthermia, according to an autopsy performed Monday by the Pierce County medical examiner’s office.

A child should never be left untended in a car, “let alone in a car with the windows rolled up, in the sun,” said Robert Bishop, an investigator with the medical examiner’s office.

Kasey’s 24-year-old mother had spent Saturday night at a girlfriend’s house and returned home with her daughter between 8 and 9 a.m. Sunday, said sheriff’s department spokesman Curt Benson.

The baby, covered with a blanket, was sleeping in her carseat in the back when they reached the house, Benson said. Not wanting to wake her, the mother left her in the car with the windows rolled up and went inside.

But the mother then fell asleep, too - until 1 p.m., he said. When she awoke and found the baby not breathing, she applied CPR and called 911, but it was too late. The baby was dead.

“She’s quite devastated,” Benson said.

Investigators will probably complete their work by week’s end, Benson said. Benson provided the estimate of the car’s interior temperature.