The Beacon Journal (OH)
Baby left in car dies
Beacon Journal staff writer
And now detectives are interviewing the boy's parents to
determine why the 9-month-old was left alone.
Lt. Bob Starcher said the department received a panicked 911
call at 10:56 a.m. from an employee at The Mail Room on
By the time police and ambulance workers arrived, Starcher
said, the baby, identified as Tyler Costelo, was not breathing.
Medina County Coroner Neil F. Grabenstetter said
Grabenstetter said the boy was pronounced dead around noon.
His body has been sent to the
If there's any hope in a tragedy like this, Grabenstetter
said, it can be found in the parents' decision to donate
Grabenstetter said it appears the boy died of heat-related
injuries.
``Fortunately, cases like this are rare here,'' he said.
Starcher said investigators believe the child had been left
unattended since 7:50 a.m. He said the department is now working with the
Medina County Prosecutor's Office to discuss potential charges.
An answering machine at The Mail Room stated the business
was closed for the afternoon. Officials were not releasing the parents' names.
According to the National Weather Service office at the
Lisa Pardi, injury prevention coordinator at Children's
Hospital Medical Center of Akron and
A joint study by the National SAFE Kids Campaign and General
Motors found that the inside temperature of a car parked in the hot sun can
reach deadly heights within a short time.
The study found that the temperature inside a Chevy Venture
van parked in a sun-drenched parking lot climbed to 120 degrees within 30
minutes, even though the outside air was just over 70 degrees. Within two
hours, the van's interior temperature rose to 140 degrees.
Since 1996, GM researchers found there have been 150
children whose deaths can be directly linked to being left unattended in a hot
vehicle.
Pardi said young children, the elderly and pets are
particularly vulnerable because their bodies are ill-equipped to fight off the
heat and resulting dehydration.
``We need to educate folks about the danger,'' she said.
``And unfortunately, it takes a horrible tragedy like this. The real
unfortunate part is that this is probably not the last time we will see this
this summer.''
Craig Webb can be reached at 330-723-7119
or cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/3762663.htm
8/22/2002
12:19:58 PM
By
BRUCE F. GRIFFIN
Staff
Writer
Test
results from the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office confirmed preliminary
findings that 9-month-old Tyler Costello died from hyperthermia — overheating.
Initial
tests indicated his body temperature reached 108 degrees.
"I
ruled the manner of death as a homicide because it was something done to a
person by someone else," Medina County Coroner Neil Graben-stetter said.
Holman
said he didn't know whether he could have the case ready by next week, when a
county grand jury is scheduled to reconvene.
He
made clear, however, he doesn't consider the case a homicide. "This is a
horrible tragedy. Murder does not apply. There's no intent," Holman said.
Costello,
33, could still face charges ranging from negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, to
first- or third-degree felony manslaughter. A
misdemeanor
carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. First-degree
manslaughter is punishable by 10 years in prison; third-degree, up to five
years,
A
grand jury also could decide not to indict him.
All
indications point to the child's death being an accident, Holman said, adding
there have been similar cases in which a grand jury has not handed down an
indictment.
No
charges have been filed in the infant's July 29 death.
"Anyone
who knows Todd Costello and anyone who knows the factual circumstances of this
case knows this was nothing more than a tragic accident," said David L.
McArtor, Costello's lawyer.
The
toddler died after being left locked for three hours on a hot, sultry morning
in Costello's dark blue Dodge Neon outside the Mail Room Inc.,
A
police report following the incident said a reading from the Neon's dashboard
temperature gauge showed its interior temperature reached 140.3 degrees
Fahr-enheit.
A
coworker, Tom Parsons, discovered the infant, still strapped into a rear
passenger-side child restraint seat, while walking toward a loading dock.
Police
received a 911 call from a frantic Costello at 10:56 a.m. He is believed to
have arrived at work at approximately 7:50 a.m.
Attempts
to revive the youngster — including cardiopulmonary resuscitation by Parsons —
failed.
A
change in family routine may have played a key role in his death. Normally,
Costello drove his older daughter, Emily, to school and his wife, Melody,
dropped
The
routine changed because Melody Costello was planning to attend a family
member's wedding that would take her out of town.
Family
members said Costello took
Copyright
2002 The
Coroner Neil
Grabenstetter said more tests were needed to confirm the cause of death of
Tyler Costello on Monday. The autopsy took place at the
Police Chief Dennis
Hanwell said that after he obtained an autopsy report, the case would be
forwarded to the prosecutor's office for a recommendation on whether to file
charges.
A man believed to
be the child's father parked the car and reported to work Monday about 7:50
a.m. at a packaging business. Police withheld his name.
About three hours
later, another employee noticed the child inside the car in the company parking
lot and got the man to unlock the car.
When the baby was
unresponsive, one of the two men called 911 and the other attempted to
resuscitate the baby, Hanwell said.
Police and an
ambulance crew could not revive the baby, who was pronounced dead at
The outside
temperature when the child was left in the car was 76 degrees. It had climbed
to 83 degrees by the time the employee spotted the baby strapped to his car
seat.
AP-CS-07-30-02 1735EDT
Copyright 1996 Associated Press. All right
reserved This material may not be reproduced for publication, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.
.
Mother
whose baby died in husband's car says she forgives him
08/29/02
Steve Luttner
Plain Dealer Reporter
- Melody Costello knows the moment she decided to forgive her husband for his
fatal error last month when he left their infant son locked in a steamy car for
three hours.
As
she held the dead body of her 9-month-old son, Tyler, in the emergency room of
Medina General Hospital, she met husband Todd's eyes as he walked in.
"When I saw Todd come into the hospital, when he saw his son and me
holding him, that was when I knew that I had to forgive him," she said.
"We took vows five years ago for better or worse. If this is the worst we
have to encounter in our marriage, I think we may be OK."
Is she angry?
"No," she said. "I'm upset. I'm hurt. But I can't be angry at
Todd or the situation. I know what Todd did was an accident. I have forgiven
him. I have told him that."
The couple held hands briefly during an interview last night arranged by their
lawyer. Todd Costello, 33, wept softly and often. Melody Costello, 27,
occasionally touched a tissue to her eyes.
Todd Costello, acting on advice from their lawyer, declined to answer some
questions, including what he was thinking about as he drove to work that sultry
morning and how he forgot that his son was in the back seat. The drive from
home to job takes between seven and 10 minutes, he said.
Relatives have said
Although a
"There's no punishment that anybody walking this planet could give me that
could ever compare to how I feel," he said. "Punishing me isn't just
punishing me, it extends into my family. It hurts my wife. It takes away from
being a father to my daughter." He said there are questions about that day
that he can't answer himself.
"I still ask myself a thousand questions a day," he said.
"It takes a lot to get out of bed. I still lay there sometimes assuming,
or waiting, to hear him talk, to hear that he's awake, and that it's time for
somebody to go get him. That moment never comes.
"I told Melody that I feel like I'm in the wrong time-line. I have
memories and pictures and an attachment to this little person that's not there."
The
Normally, Melody dropped
When Todd didn't show up with
The Costellos, who said yesterday that they may one day have another baby, have
both returned to work. Todd, who drives the same Dodge Neon that he left his
son in, said he has cut his hours. At the time of
The Costellos' other child, 4-year-old Emily, has given them strength, they
said. The little girl, while recently looking at a drawing of baby Jesus in the
manger, told her grandfather, "That's
The Costellos were accompanied to the interview by Melody's parents, John and
Carol Ramsey, who said they don't blame their son-in-law for their grandson's
death. The couple said they had also gotten support from people throughout the
region. Although there have been some negative letters in local newspapers, the
couple said, they have received no angry phone calls or notes.
"It's my belief that anybody in the community who's a parent and has faith
should and could understand what is going on," Todd Costello said.
"And everybody else, I really don't care. They can form their own
opinions."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
sluttner@plaind.com, 1-800-683-7348
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/medina/1030613429128940.xml
The Plain Dealer
07/30/02
Medina baby left
in car 3 hours, dies
Steve Luttner and Stephanie
Sheldon
Plain Dealer Reporters
A 9-month-old boy died yesterday after he was
left in a parked car for three hours, police said.
Tyler Costello was pronounced dead in the
emergency room of
Grabenstetter said he would not make an
official ruling on the death until an autopsy is performed today at the
"The initial findings are consistent
with overheating" as a cause of death, Grabenstetter said.
A co-worker of Costello's noticed the infant
in the car, which had been parked since 7:50 a.m., said police Detective Mike
Wesner.
The co-worker ran into the business and got
the boy's father, who opened the car and got his son out, Wesner said.
Police said Costello, 33, and the co-worker
performed CPR on the infant, who was not breathing, until rescue workers
arrived.
Police would offer no explanation about why
the infant was left in the car.
The car, which had all of its windows up yesterday
morning while officers examined and searched it, was impounded by police.
At 8 a.m. yesterday, it was 79 degrees. By 11
a.m., it was 83 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
According to the National Safe Kids Campaign,
a public-awareness group, a vehicle's temperature can double from 70 degrees to
140 degrees in two hours if it is 80 degrees outside.
Police Chief Dennis Hanwell said charges may
be brought as a result of the death, but no arrests were made yesterday.
"The family is grieving," said the
Rev. David Wiener, the
The Costellos, who live in a modest ranch
house in
The Rev. Thomas Schwartz, pastor at St.
Matthew Lutheran Church in
"At this point, the family has said that
it's a very sad day for everyone in their family and they have no other comment
at this time," Schwartz said. He said the Costellos regularly attend
church at St. Matthew.
So far this year, 10 children, not including
This month, a
"The only good thing that can come from
a tragedy like this is it gives us an opportunity to remind people it is unsafe
to leave children unattended in a car," said Dr. Edward Michelson,
chairman of the emergency department at University Hospitals in
To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:
sluttner@plaind.com, 1-800-683-7348
ssheldon@plaind.com, 1-800-683-7348
© 2002 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.