DELRAY BEACH — A 2-year-old girl apparently was left in a day-care center van through the heat of the day after being picked up Thursday morning, and was found dead hours later.
The child, identified by great-aunt Susan Pinckney as Haley Brockington, was found in the rear of a Ford Econoline van about 4 p.m. at Katie’s Kids Learning Center on Southwest 10th Avenue, said Delray Beach police spokesman Jeff Messer.
It is unknown who left her there, but a Katie’s Kids employee found the child when preparing to drive the vehicle. She could have been in the van for up to six hours, Messer said. Thursday’s high was 91 degrees, according to National Weather Service in Miami, but temperatures in an enclosed vehicle climb much higher.
While Haley’s parents, Mandus Brockington and Nelda Lester, grieved elsewhere, Pinckney and family friend Paulette Robinson spoke Thursday evening from a church near the day care, St. Paul Missionary Baptist.
“I’m devastated. I can’t believe something like this happened,” Robinson said. “People go to work and put their kids in day-care centers so their kids can be safe, so we have no worries. But it looks like they failed the parents, they failed the community.
“If I was a parent to any one of the kids that go there, I would not bring my kids back to a facility like that.”
At Katie’s Kids Thursday evening, day-care workers threaded their way through media crews on scene, refusing to comment. A woman leaving the facility declined to give her name, but said employees at the center were devastated by the incident.
“We are about to go to pieces because that’s a child, that’s an infant,” she said. “It could have been any one of our children.”
Owners Kathryn Muhammad and Barbara Dilthey, president and vice president respectively of Katie’s Kids, were unavailable at the scene for comment. Muhammad later refused to comment when reached by phone.
The state Department of Children and Families sent a Rapid Response Team to join Delray Beach police in the investigation, said Elisa Cramer, DCF communications director in Palm Beach County.
It was not immediately known how many children attend the day-care center, but Messer said it is a licensed facility. The Palm Beach County Health Department licenses day cares, and its website indicates the facility has no violations.
However, the investigation into Thursday’s death could change that, health department spokesman Tim O’Connor said.
“Potentially it could jeopardize their operating,” he said. “I can’t say at this point without knowing what exactly occurred and how it occurred and what other violations they may have in conjunction with this incident.”
Katie’s Kids Learning Center Inc. was formed in 2003, records show. It operates two of four locations in Delray Beach, on Southwest 10th Avenue and Northeast Third Avenue, and has a location on Southeast Second Street in Boynton Beach.
Recently the Palm Beach County Safe Kids Coalition started a campaign, “Look Before You Lock,” to save children from dying of heat-related causes in vehicles. Its goal is to ingrain behavior that will keep parents and caregivers from forgetting where their kids are.
As of July, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue had received 249 calls about kids trapped in cars, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Don DeLucia said. In 2009, it received 450 calls.
In the past 10 years in the U.S., about 450 youngsters locked in cars have died from hyperthermia. The average annual number of deaths is 37.
