A man facing imprisonment for causing the death of his two-year-old daughter by leaving her in a hot car while he watched adult content has passed away. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office in Arizona confirmed the death of Christopher Scholtes on Wednesday without providing a cause.
Scholtes was absent from a court hearing in Pima County Superior Court, scheduled before his sentencing on November 21. Medical examiners reported that the car’s interior temperature was approximately 43°C when emergency responders arrived, determining the cause of death to be heat exposure.
In a prior agreement with prosecutors, the 38-year-old father had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the July 2024 incident involving his daughter, Parker. He was expected to receive a 20 to 30-year prison sentence but had been on bail until the day of his scheduled custody transfer.
On the day of the tragic event, Scholtes was arrested after leaving his youngest child unattended in the car while occupied with video games. He admitted to searching for explicit material on his PlayStation and justifying leaving his daughter in the car outside their Marana residence for her nap.
Initially claiming to have left the air conditioning on for 30 minutes, Scholtes later confessed that the car’s engine automatically turned off after that period. Surveillance footage revealed his activities, including shoplifting beer, consuming alcohol, and neglecting his daughter in the sweltering car.
Upon discovering the motionless child still in the car seat, the mother called for help, but the girl could not be saved. An autopsy indicated the young girl’s body temperature had reached 108.9F (42.72C), leading to her tragic demise due to environmental heat exposure.
Witness statements from Scholtes’ other children, aged nine and five, revealed a pattern of neglect, including leaving them alone in the vehicle for extended durations. Allegations of abusive behavior and negligence were also raised by his 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, who filed a lawsuit days before his death.
Despite public backlash and legal battles, Scholtes and his wife relocated to a new home near Phoenix after the tragic incident. The family had sought court permission for travel to Hawaii, a request approved following judicial consideration, just months after the loss of their youngest daughter.