Arizona mom accused of leaving 2-year-old son in home garage with no AC
PD: Mom arrested after child left in hot garage
Police say a 2-year-old was left in an unairconditioned Mesa garage and tested positive for drugs, leading to his mother's arrest. FOX 10's Andrew Christiansen reports.
PHOENIX - A Mesa mother is facing child abuse charges, after she allegedly left her 2-year-old son by himself inside a garage with no air conditioning. Investigators say the toddler also had illegal drugs in his system.
What we know:
"Fentanyl, methamphetamine, and THC was discovered in the victim's system after a medical evaluation. The medical evaluation results prompted further investigation by DCS," read a portion of the court documents.
Police said Shellhouse later admitted that "she smokes fentanyl, meth, and marijuana 10+ [times] per day inside her residence with her 2-year-old," and said her son is "obviously exposed when she smokes."
"Multiple illicit metabolites found in his system. The fact that he was left in a garage in this heat in Phoenix, Arizona by himself," a judge said during court proceedings.
Mesa police arrest mom accused of child abuse
A Mesa woman is accused of leaving her toddler in a garage without air conditioning, and court documents also reveal the child tested positive for multiple drugs. FOX 10's Andrew Christensen reports.
Dig deeper:
Schellhammer, 32, made her initial court appearance after being charged with felony child abuse and violating a protection order that already banned her from contact with her child.
Amy Shellhammer (Courtesy: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
Mesa Police say this all came to light Aug. 1, when officers responded to Schellhammer’s home for a fatal overdose involving a man inside. When questioned, Schellhammer told police her 2-year-old son was being cared for by a neighbor. But that neighbor revealed a chilling detail—texting police a message from Schellhammer admitting she had left her son in the garage days earlier. That neighbor found the boy and says it took up to 30 minutes just to wake him up.
Local perspective:
Residents in Mesa say with extreme heat, the allegations are even harder to comprehend.
"It’s, like, getting to 115, and it’s just crazy to think that in the garage it’s probably even hotter than that and so that’s just so sad to hear about that," neighbor Brenda said.
Neighbors speak out
"It's pretty shocking that in this weather somebody would even be in the garage," a neighbor said, while Dorian Pineda, who is also a neighbor, said. "Crazy! Somebody like that should definitely not have a kid."
"For child abuse, imminent danger has to be present for the child, so there's more than just the text messages. The heat is obviously playing a factor," said Kyler Newby, the sergeant of the media relations unit of the Mesa Police Department.
What's next:
Per court records, Shellhammer is accused of felony child abuse. She is also accused of a count of failure to comply with a court order, which is a misdemeanor.
A judge has set a $35,000 bond for Shellhammer. Should she make bail, Shellhammer will be subjected to a number of restrictions, including a ban on contacting the victim and other children, and a ban on leaving the state.
Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 27.
The Source: Information for this article was gathered from court documents related to this case.