4 Year old Florida Boy dies in Car while mother gets her nails done for wedding

Bride-to-be Mirlande Jean-Baptiste's wedding day turned to tragedy on Saturday when her 4-year-old son died in an SUV while she was in a salon preparing for her ceremony. The mother, 29, may not have known her child was in the Ford Expedition, investigators said. Jean-Baptiste's son was in the vehicle west of West Palm Beach for almost three hours on a morning that reached 89 degrees, investigators added.

She and her sister dropped some children off at a relative's house before 9 a.m. "Perhaps the child didn't get out or snuck back into the car," said Sgt. Pete Palenzuela of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. "The mother is traumatized." Jean-Baptiste was going to get married at 5:30 p.m. at Elected Church of God in Lake Worth. By 11:45 a.m., she was done at the U.S. Nails salon and off to get her hair done.

When she got back to her SUV in the parking lot in the 2600 block of South Military Trail she found the boy. She or her sister called 911 in panic. One of the women attempted CPR and paramedics did as well upon their arrival. The boy was pronounced dead shortly after at Palms West Hospital in Loxahatchee. Jean-Baptiste had to be sedated at the hospital.

The Sheriff's Office did not release Jean-Baptiste's name Saturday. She was identified by her pastors and through state records. There was no one home Saturday afternoon at the modest pale pink house that Jean-Baptiste rents on Oak Royal Drive in suburban Lake Worth. But Pastor Jacob Suffiard, who was supposed to marry the couple, stopped by to console the grieving mother. "I have to be there for them," Suffiard said before heading to the hospital.

At the church, the sanctuary was empty and dark just after 5 p.m. Saturday — the scent of the flowers still lingered. "It was supposed to be a big wedding," Pastor Wendell Charles said. "We just took the decorations down." Charles said he had already notified most of the guests. He was the only one at the church Saturday. Charles said Jean had just joined the church after moving to Palm Beach County from Miami to be close to her sister. "I keep thinking, 'How come this happened to her?'" Charles said. "She's a good person."

About 36 infants and children die a year from being trapped in a hot car, said Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kids and Cars, a national nonprofit group that advocates for child vehicle safety. This year, there have been 18 across the country. Saturday's incident is the second this year in Florida. On April 1 in Ocala, Fennell said, parents left their 8-month-old in the car, each thinking the other got the baby out. "The problem isn't going to go away," she said. "Because we're human."

Of the hyperthermia cases, 50 percent of the people have forgotten the child's in the car; 30 percent of the deaths occur when a child sneaks into the car; and about 18 percent when the child is intentionally left, Fennell said. The deaths happen quickly, said Jan Null, a San Francisco State University meteorology professor. The heat is usually 50 degrees hotter than it is outside the vehicle. It rises within minutes, he said. The parents whose children unintentionally die this way are never the same. "As they describe it, they're in hell every day," Fennell said. Jean-Baptiste works as a nurse for Manor Care and at a Denny's restaurant, said her landlord, Jordany Jean of West Palm Beach.

Linda Le, owner of the nail salon Jean-Baptiste was in, said she saw the mother and son the night before when they came in to make the appointment. Jean-Baptiste was a regular customer there, Le said. She was always a welcome sight. And a good mother.