American dad who watched porn while 2-year-old died in hot car kills himself

A father who left his two-year-old daughter in the car while he had beers and watched porn has died by suicide. Christopher Scholtes took the extreme step just hours before he was due to report to prison ahead of his sentencing, local media reports suggested. The 38-year-old had pleaded guilty to the death of his youngest daughter, Parker, as part of a plea deal in Pima County Superior Court last month. He was listed as deceased by the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office in Arizona on Wednesday. He killed himself in his plush $1 million mansion in Arizona on Wednesday morning, although how he did it is not known. Scholtes left his toddler daughter in the car as she took a nap in the backseat of their Acura, parked on the driveway in July 2024. Meanwhile, he went inside the home, played video games, watched porn and drank beer for more than three hours.

He had left the car running with the air conditioning switched on. Scholtes lost track of time and continued to have a gala time while the car engine switched off. Parker died in the hot car. The Pima County Medical Examiner said the temperature inside the car was 108.9°F when first responders arrived. Scholtes was to be jailed for 20 to 30 years without parole. But he was permitted to be out on bail until Wednesday, but he killed himself before he could go to jail. Pima County prosecutors were visibly shaken by the incident at the court hearing, and said they will soon provide more details.

The father regularly left his kids in the car

His wife, anesthesiologist Erika Scholtes, had spent $1.025 million on a four-bedroom house where they shifted following Parker's death. She worked at the Banner University Medical Centre where Parker was taken to. Erika defended her husband in court, saying that what happened was a mistake. According to the prosecutors, texts between Scholtes and Erika revealed that he habitually left their children in the car for extended periods. Their nine and five-year-old daughters told the police that their father regularly left them in the car.

Security footage showed that Scholtes also left Parker alone in the car on the same day as he shopped at a gas station and a supermarket. He shoplifted beer from both shops, according to the documents. He reached home at 12.53 pm, but told the police that he had come at 2:30. When Erika came home at 4, she asked about Parker. That's when he realised his mistake and rushed to get her. First responders arrived, and she died an hour later at the hospital. Court documents show that he searched the internet for men's clothing at Nordstrom and for pornography from 2.02 pm to 2.30 pm.