OAN Staff Abril Elfi
9:02 AM – Saturday, July 26, 2025
A 3-year-old boy has died after he was left alone in a scorching car by a child protective services worker in Alabama.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office stated that Ke’Torrius Starks Jr., who had been living in temporary foster care, was left in a Department of Human Resources (DHR) worker’s car for five hours Tuesday as temperatures soared to 108 degrees.
“This is a parent’s worst nightmare,” the child’s parents said in a statement. “Our baby should be alive.”
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Authorities stated that the child’s foster family had dropped him off at daycare so a DHR worker could pick him up for a scheduled visit with his biological father.
When the supervised visit concluded at 11:30 a.m., the worker allegedly stopped to get lunch for her family and went inside a tobacco store rather than returning him to the daycare center as planned.
The worker then allegedly went to their own home, leaving the boy alone in the car with the windows rolled up from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m., according to authorities. He was pronounced dead on the scene just after 6 p.m.
“A child in DHR custody was being transported by a contract provider when the incident occurred,” a DHR spokesperson told The New York Post in a statement. “The provider has terminated their employee. Due to confidentiality, DHR cannot comment further regarding the identity of the child or the exact circumstances.”
The identity of the since-fired DHR employee has not been made public, and it was unclear whether they will face charges.
It was also unclear how long Starks had been with his foster family or why he was separated from his biological parents.
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