Newborn dies after mum 'forgets her' in hot car

A mum has been accused of leaving her newborn baby in her car to die after allegedly getting high and forgetting about her.

Megan Dauphin was arrested on Tuesday (local time), just over one month after her daughter was found dead in the 30-year-old’s car as it sat outside her Panama City home in the US state of Florida.

Police say they were called to Ms Dauphin’s home on September 2 after “it was discovered she had left her baby in her vehicle unattended for several hours,” the Bay County Sheriff’s department said in a statement.

The average temperature in Panama City in September is 28.3 degrees Celsius, according to local reports.

The infant, named McKinley Garner according to Metro.co.uk, was pronounced dead at the scene. She was born on July 4.

The sheriff’s department alleges they found drug paraphernalia inside the mum’s home.

Officers said a blood test later showed Ms Dauphin “was under the influence of methamphetamine the morning she left the infant in the vehicle.”

The 30-year-old has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and is in jail.

An unnamed friend told Metro.co.uk she found the “whole situation very shocking”.

‘All I keep picturing in my head is that beautiful baby girl wrapped up in the swaddle blanket I bought off your baby shower and to imagine her life get taken from that innocent child because of a mother leaving her child unattended in a hot car is so disturbing,” they told Metro.

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