Hot Car Dad: Police Bodycam Footage Shows Arizona Man Who ‘Murdered’ Daughter, 2, Distraught With Responders
Body cam footage shows Christopher Scholtes in distress while dealing with police after they discovered his daughter in hot car.
Aug. 12 2024, Published 12:56 p.m. ET
Newly released bodycam footage revealed the Arizona father who allegedly left his young daughter to die in a hot car while he played video games become defensive with police, RadarOnline.com can confirm.
On July 9, authorities responded to the Marana home of 37-year-old Christopher Scholtes and found his 2-year-old daughter, Parker, clinging to life in his family car, Front Page Detectives reported.
Police found the 2-year-old clinging to life in the hot car after she was left inside it for reportedly three hours.
In court documents obtained by the New York Post, Scholtes claimed he got home and didn’t want to wake his daughter, who was sleeping in the car, so he left the car running and the air conditioner on for around a half hour.
According to the body cam footage obtained by Inside Edition, when police said the home might be a crime scene, Scholtes raises his voice, asking them if he is being “treated like a murderer”.
Body cam footage showed Scholtes in distress while the cops were at the scene.
As police were trying to save Parker, Scholtes looks distressed as he holds his head in his hands and paces around the home.
At one point, he pleads, “Please, baby, please”, and then later, while speaking on the phone, he can be heard saying, “I can’t believe this”.
Scholtes raised his voice when cops said they had to treat the home as a murder scene, officials said.
Parker’s mother, an anesthesiologist, discovered her daughter in critical condition in the car with the AC off when she came home around 4 p.m.
In the footage, Scholtes tells police he only left the toddler outside for “no more than 30, 45 minutes” and he was checking on her throughout.
However, court documents allege he left her in the hot car for over three hours while he was inside. He told police, according to officials, that "he got distracted by playing his (video) game and putting his food away”.
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Scholtes was arrested and is now charged with first-degree murder in the death of his daughter, officials said.
In a text message after the incident, his wife, Erika Scholtes, allegedly wrote: “I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you?”
According to a criminal complaint, the father's two other children told police he regularly left them outside in the car. His 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage claimed he frequently left her alone inside cars without food for hours at a time, even to the point where Child Protective Services took her away from him, KVOA-TV reported.
Scholtes was arrested and has been charged with first-degree murder.
He pleaded not guilty.
His wife asked the judge on the case to release him to come home to his family so they could “start the grieving process” together. She added: “This was a big mistake [that] doesn’t represent him.”
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