Authorities puzzled about mother in deaths of children left in hot car. For a JOB!!!!! After sitter canceled, mother left 2 children in hot car with fans, food, drinks
She worked 8 hours, then she said she had to leave due to child care issues
A day later, police found her at her apartment wailing, "Oh, my babies!"
The children's bodies, bathed and dressed, were found wrapped in trash bags...
HANAHAN, South Carolina (AP) -- Sametta Heyward was in a bind. The
single mother was scheduled to start a double shift at 3 p.m., and her
baby sitter had just canceled.
Attorney Andy Savage talks with Sametta Heyward before her bail hearing Tuesday in Hanahan, South Carolina.
1 of 2 "She was either told to come to work or be fired, or she was
afraid to call in sick -- one of those things," said police Lt. Michael
Fowler. She made it to her job at a county-run group home July 29, a typically
warm summer day. After eight hours, she called a supervisor and said she had to leave because of child-care issues.
According to her employer, she didn't tell the supervisor or a co-worker
that for all that time, she had left her 1-year-old daughter and
4-year-old son in her Chevy Cavalier hatchback, parked on a residential street.
She had left Triniti and Shawn with battery-powered fans, food and
drinks, but it was not nearly enough to combat the sweltering conditions
inside. She later told relatives that when she got to the car at 11:30
p.m., the children were unconscious and had weak pulses.
A day later, police found her at her apartment wailing, "Oh, my babies!"
Officers said in a police report that she tried to kick and bite them
and asked them to kill her. The bodies of the children, bathed and
dressed, were found wrapped in trash bags and stuffed under the sink.
Heyward, 27, was charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse. A
funeral for the children was held Saturday.
Lab tests are pending that could help determine whether the children
died in the stifling car or sometime after their mother rushed their
limp bodies back to their tiny apartment.
A host of other questions remain unanswered: Why didn't she take the
children inside the group home? Did she ever check on them? Why didn't
she tell her supervisor that the baby sitter had canceled? If the
children were alive when she got to them, why didn't she seek medical
help?
People who know her say they considered her a loving mother, despite a
life that turned tough long before she moved into the 252-square-foot
efficiency apartment.
"She and her kids were always happy, smiling and joking," said Tony
Smith, who lived a few doors down and often shared meals with the
family.
Smith's wife, Sheryce Robertson, would sometimes baby-sit, but Robertson
was sick when Heyward asked her to care for the kids that Sunday.
It was an average summer day by South Carolina standards: 88 degrees.
But the inside of the car would have been like an oven, according to
experts, who say the children may not have had much of a chance even if
the windows were cracked.
"If it's in direct sunlight, you can easily get temperatures of 130 or
140 degrees in a car in 10 or 15 minutes," said Dr. Keith Borg, an
emergency room physician at the Medical University of South Carolina.
"At that kind of temperature, it could kill an infant or a small child
in minutes."
Her friends and her bosses -- and even the officers who arrested her --
say Heyward had been trying her best: working long hours and providing
for her children.
In May, she and her children had moved into the $185-a-week apartment in
Hanahan, a bedroom community of about 14,000 people some 15 miles from Charleston. She told the apartment complex manager they wouldn't be
there long, that she was already looking for another place.
She had been arrested twice in the past three years, but she was not
prosecuted on a charge of hindering an officer and was found not guilty
of first-degree criminal domestic violence in February 2006.
A few months before the move, she put a newborn up for adoption. A
12-year-old son lives with his father in Maryland.
If those things affected her, it didn't show on the job. In a recent
statement, the Disabilities Board of Charleston County said Heyward "was
a valued employee who received good evaluations of her work" and was
well-regarded by staff and clients.
Her lawyer, Andy Savage, said he hopes a mental evaluation will shed
light on what happened.
"Neighbors see her as a great mother. This isn't a woman who beat her
kids," he said. "Suppose she went to work that night and left them at
home. Would that have been better?"

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Proud Supporter Of: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Forrest's Momma was right.

"Stupid is as stupid does"

SAD.................

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Very tragic! How Terrible!

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Soooooooo SAD!!! I feel for the whole family! Tragic!

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We have that happen every year here.

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quote of the day here.

In my home town, there was a girl that would leave her kids in the car, while she went in the bar to drink and then, a couple of hours later, she would drive them home, intoxicated! I was a kid, or I would have reported her, but I just can't see how anyone who knew that she was doing this, could NOT report her. It was common knowledge in the town. Just makes me sick.

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she probably did "favors" for the men in town so they didn't talk and didn't want to lose her "favors"

the sad part is you hear of this every year! when in the hell are these mothers gonna learn you can't leave a kid in the car in 90 degree weather ? and i admit it is surprising to me that it's almost always the mother who does this. don't get me wrong I'm not downing women or anything but it seems like fathers would pull this kinda crap before the mothers as most of us see mothers as more attentive and caring than fathers.

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Proud Supporter Of: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital