John Jefferson
Timothy Blackdeer (Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office).
A Tennessee girl died in a hot car after her father forgot to leave her with the babysitter earlier this week, Volunteer State authorities say.
In a bleak twist of fate, two other children were in the same car, at the same time, earlier that day — not forgotten and, now, still alive.
Timothy Paul Blackdeer, 35, stands accused of one count each of reckless homicide and aggravated child abuse or neglect, according to a press release issued by the Collegedale Police Department.
The incident occurred on Monday, according to an affidavit of complaint obtained by Law&Crime.
At around 3:15 p.m., Collegedale Chief of Police Jack Sapp spotted a maroon SUV “driving erratically” as it passed him, according to the charging document. Behind the wheel, the chief saw “a white male driver holding an infant in his arms,” the affidavit says. Sapp quickly turned around and performed a traffic stop on the maroon GMC Acadia. The driver “exited with an infant in his arms and stated he needed medical assistance due to his daughter being unresponsive.”
Blackdeer then handed the child over to Sapp, the affidavit says, who described the girl as “unresponsive and limp” with blue lips. At first, the chief instructed another officer at the scene to begin CPR and the girl was put in the front seat of a patrol vehicle. Then, the group doubled as three nurse practitioners approached and offered to help.
“Chief allowed the medically trained females to begin helping the child,” the affidavit reads. “CPR was initiated. The current temperature outside when officers made contact was 85 degrees.”
One of the women remarked that “the child may have been left [inside] the vehicle throughout the day,” the charging document says.
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Blackdeer allegedly admitted that was, in fact, what happened.
“Blackdeer spontaneously uttered that the child was left in the car all day while he was at work,” the affidavit reads. After that, police say, the defendant was Mirandized and taken into custody; the child was taken to Erlanger Children’s Hospital. There, she was pronounced dead on arrival. The charging document adds: “Her body temperature at the hospital was 105.8.”
During a custodial interview roughly an hour later, the accused father gave his recollection of the tragic day.
“He got up at around 5am and got the kids together to take them to the babysitter,” the charging document reads. “He said he took the three youngest to the babysitter, Kayla, in Athens, TN. He was unaware of the address, but knew it was about 10-15 minutes from his home. He said that he got the kids to the babysitter, carried all their bags inside, spoke with the babysitter for a few minutes and then walked to the car where he then called his wife.”
After that, Blackdeer allegedly told police, he arrived at a job site at a middle school in Collegedale and went to work.
“[H]e didn’t hear anything in his car while arriving to work,” the document goes on. “When he arrived to work, he had to park up the hill since school was in session at the site he was working. He said it was about a 10 minute walk to the job site. He said he didn’t go to the car from the job site during his breaks because the extent of the break was only long enough as it would take to walk to the vehicle.”
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Blackdeer allegedly said he went out to lunch with his boss around noon — but only had a Powerade. When asked why he did not eat, the defendant allegedly replied: “the heat doesn’t make you hungry.”
Then, the defendant allegedly told police, he got a phone call from his wife at around 3 p.m. asking where their youngest daughter was.
“[T]hen he ran up to his car to find [redacted] in the vehicle,” the document continues. “He was asked how often had taken the children to the babysitter and he said for a few weeks since school had started. When asked why his wife doesn’t take the children to the babysitter, he said it was because she sometimes goes in to work too early for the babysitter to take the children.”
Police later followed up with the mother, who said she “got the three young children ready to go to the babysitter first thing in the morning” on the day in question and then “left before Timothy and the children.”
As for the forgotten girl, her mother said, the babysitter texted around 6:18 a.m. to note the child’s absence. The mother, however, allegedly said “she didn’t think anything of it” because she assumed the girl had stayed home with their 15-year-old and 12-year-old daughters.
But, of course, she hadn’t stayed home at all.
“[The mother] then went to pick up the children at the babysitter and then called one of her daughters at home to get everyone together to go to the doctor’s office,” the affidavit concludes. “The child she spoke with told her [the infant] was not present in the home. She then called Timothy about [the infant’s] whereabouts.”
The defendant is currently being detained in the Hamilton County Jail without bond.
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