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Toddler Left In SUV Dies Of Heat

Investigators Say Heat Index Surpassed 100 Degrees

BOWLING GREEN, Mo. , 12:32 p.m. CDT July 25, 2001 -- A 19-month-old girl died in northeast Missouri after being left in the family's Jeep Cherokee for two or three hours while the heat index surpassed 100 degrees, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Marquita Shade's father, Joe Shade, left Marquita and her three sisters, ages 7, 9 and 11, in the car Monday afternoon while he talked to a neighbor in front of the family's mobile home, authorities said. Shade told the older girls to bring the baby and her diaper bag inside, and he took a nap, Pike County Prosecutor Mark Fisher said.

"Whether he laid down with the intention of taking a nap or not is not clear," Fisher said of 24-year-old Shade, who had been complaining of a toothache and had taken medication for it. "It is clear he fell asleep."

Fisher said that the mother later came home, asked where Marquita was and began searching for the child, who was found unresponsive in the vehicle in this community about 85 miles northwest of St. Louis.

Emergency workers summoned to the scene failed to revive the child, who died later at a hospital in Louisiana, Mo., about 11 miles away, Fisher said.

The heat index was 107 when Shade made the 911 call around 5 p.m., Bowling Green Police Chief Pete Cannon told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"It doesn't look like any foul play. It doesn't look like he intended to do it," Cannon said. "He was obviously very distraught over the situation. It is a tragedy. It could have been prevented."

Cannon said that the death was being investigated by his department, the Pike County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri Division of Family Services.

Pike County's Child Fatality Review Team also will be impaneled to investigate the death, Fisher said. The board will interview family members and review autopsy results before making a decision on whether to prosecute.

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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