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Parker County Mother Charged in Deaths of Children Found in Hot Car

The children, 2-year-old Juliet Ramirez and 16-month-old Cavanaugh Ramirez, were found deceased May 26 inside a car

A North Texas woman has been arrested in connection with the deaths of her two children from extreme heat exposure after they were found locked inside a car last month, the Parker County Sheriff's Office says.

Cynthia Marie Randolph, 24, was charged Friday with two first-degree felony counts of injury to a child causing serious bodily injury.

The Parker County Sheriff's Department is investigating the deaths of two young children, a brother and sister, found inside a locked car outside their home Friday afternoon.

The children, 2-year-old Juliet Ramirez and 16-month-old Cavanaugh Ramirez, were found deceased May 26 inside a vehicle on the 200 block of Rambling Loop, near Lake Weatherford.[[424687114,R]]

In Randolph's initial statements, the sheriff's office told NBC 5, she said the two children had been playing and when she couldn't find them in the house, she started searching the property, eventually locating them in the car.

However, investigators said Randolph in subsequent interviews "created several variations of the events which lead to the death of her children," and in an interview on Friday she implicated herself.

The sheriff's office said Randolph told them she found her children playing inside her car at about 12:15 p.m. and ordered her daughter out of the car using profanity. When the 2-year-old refused to get out of the car, Randolph said she shut the car door to teach the girl a lesson and believed "she could get herself and her brother out of the car when ready," according to a sheriff's office statement.

Randolph allegedly then went inside the house, smoked marijuana and fell asleep for two to three hours.

She said she later broke the car window to make it look like an accident, the sheriff's office said.

Authorities were called to the home at about 4 p.m. when the mother said she had discovered them unresponsive in the car.

At the time, the temperature outside was hovering around 96 degrees. The children were pronounced dead at 4:33 p.m.

Randolph was later interviewed by a Texas Ranger, and confessed to the crime.

No bond has been set yet for Randolph, and it is not clear whether she has an attorney.

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