Police claim a Dallas mother stopped at McDonald’s before bringing her infant son, who fell sick after being left in a hot car, to the hospital. The boy had died by the time they got there.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit released by the Frisco Police Department, 27-year-old Vanessa Esquivel initially lied to investigators about what happened on August 16.
She told police she had spent the day with her 15-month-old son, driving him around in a car with broken air conditioning. Temperatures that day climbed above 95 degrees, KDFW reports.
However, authorities say they later confirmed with her employer, the Hand & Stone Massage and Facial Spa, that Esquivel had worked a shift that afternoon from about 1:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.
The affidavit states that she eventually drove her son to Medical City Plano, but investigators determined the child was already dead. On the way, she stopped at a McDonald’s in North Dallas and ordered food.
She reportedly told staff at the hospital that she had been driving her son around and the car was hot because her air conditioning was not working. She also told them that she had been with him all day, the affidavit states.
When police responded to the hospital for a report of an infant’s death, medical staff told officers the child’s core body temperature was over 106 degrees, according to the affidavit.
The following day, Esquivel called the spa and, on a recorded line, admitted to a coworker that she was responsible for her son’s death.
She said she had been “between a rock and a hard place” and could not find childcare while she worked on two clients. She also acknowledged that she expected to be arrested and asked the coworker not to leak the call.
The boy’s name has not been released.
Esquivel was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and is currently being held in the Collin County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
