A woman's boyfriend sat in her home drinking beer after forgetting about her two-year-old daughter and leaving her in a sweltering car for seven hours before she died, authorities have said.
Daiquan Fields, 32, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse after the death of his girlfriend's daughter on April 20.
Fields was supposed to drop off two of his girlfriend's children at school in Annandale, Virginia, and take the toddler to a babysitter, court documents said.
But because they were running late, he took the older children to school first and then returned to his partner's home, apparently forgetting about the youngest child,
NBC Washington reported.
Fields went inside and spent the day watching television, drinking a beer and even meeting a housing inspector, who did not notice the girl still strapped in her car seat.
It was only when Fields went to pick up the children's mother from her job at Macy's at the Pentagon City mall that he noticed the girl had been in the car, where temperatures had reached 70F.
The child, whose name has not been released, was alone in the car from about 8am to around 3pm - a total of seven hours, police said.
An investigator wrote that Fields drove the nine miles to the mall and even sent a text message to his girlfriend before realizing the toddler was in the back.
She was unconscious, blue in the face and had fluid dripping from her nose, he told police.
The child's temperature had rocketed to 107F and she had second-degree burns where her skin was scorched by the searingly hot car seat.
Fields attempted to give the girl CPR as he phoned 911 but she was later pronounced dead in hospital.
Her cause of death is yet to be determined by the medical examiner.
It later emerged that Fields previously had his license taken from him and should not have been driving.
Police searched the family's home and found marijuana and a pipe, police said. Fields told officers he had not smoked cannabis since three days before the girl's death.
Fields was charged with involuntary manslaughter as police believe he forgot about the child and did not intend to harm her.
The mother's two other children are now being cared for by a relative.
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Man 'left girlfriend's daughter, 2, in car for 7 hours before death'
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