Alabama Mom Charged With Murder After Baby Left in Car Overnight Dies

Alabama Mom Charged With Murder After Baby Left in Car Overnight Dies
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Richard Szabo
Updated:

An Alabama woman has been charged with murder after her infant son died when she left him alone in a car for hours on Oct. 5.

Limestone County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) said the 13-month-old boy was left in a car overnight and into the afternoon the next day by his mother, Elizabeth Anne Case, while she was inside her home for nearly eight hours in Toney, which about 190 miles north of Montgomery.

LCSO deputies said the 36-year-old woman left home some time between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Oct. 4 with her son in the backseat to go dumpster diving. When she returned home around 5:40 a.m., she went inside the house and left the boy strapped in a carseat in the vehicle overnight, deputies said.

Case was woken up the next day around 1:30 p.m. by her mother who came to see her grandchild, reported the News Courier. The newspaper reported that the two women searched for the baby and found him unresponsive inside the car.

Deputies said that instead of seeking immediate medical help, the mother put the boy in the shower. The grandmother then called 911 and the child was taken to Athens-Limestone Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Case has since been arrested and charged with reckless murder. She is being held at Limestone County Jail on a $250,000 bond, jail records show.

Stephen Young with the sheriff’s office said Case is a “known drug user” and the Courier reported that she was out on bond for a first-degree robbery at the time of her arrest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Richard Szabo
Richard Szabo
Editor/Reporter
Richard Szabo is an award-winning journalist with more than 12 years' experience in news writing at mainstream and niche media organizations. He has a specialty in business, tourism, hospitality, and healthcare reporting.
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