Sponsored by

Tot Dies in Hot Car Outside Ariz. Eatery

Send a link to a friend

[November 01, 2007]  PHOENIX (AP) -- A woman who found her 1-year-old son dead in her hot, stuffy car after she worked her seven-hour shift as a Hooters waitress has been arrested, police said Wednesday.

Ashly Duchene, 22, was booked into the Maricopa County jail Wednesday on a felony count of negligent homicide.

Duchene usually dropped the boy off at a day-care center on her way to work but failed to do so Tuesday, police Sgt. Joel Tranter said.

Instead, she left her son, Ryan Gallagher, in the car when she arrived at the restaurant about 10 a.m., police said. When she returned after her shift at nearly 5 p.m., he was dead.

Temperatures hit nearly 90 degrees Tuesday, but it would have been more than 100 degrees inside the car, Tranter said.

Duchene told officials she remembered glancing at her son in the rearview mirror on her way to work that day, Tranter said. Authorities do not believe Duchene intentionally left the boy in the car.

A request to interview Duchene was not immediately answered by police Wednesday. A call placed Wednesday to a phone number believed to have belonged to Duchene was no longer working.

[Associated Press; By TERRY TANG]

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

< Top Stories index

Back to top