Not Again

[ClassyLady]

LEFT TO DIE IN BACK SEAT
TOT SUCCUMBS TO BRUTAL HEAT
By MARK ANGELES
angelem@phillynews.com

A20-MONTH-OLD Southwest Philadelphia girl died yesterday when her grandfather apparently forgot about her and left her in his closed car for several hours in 90-plus-degree heat.

Sasha Fogle, who would have turned 2 in December, apparently succumbed to the sweltering heat, police said.

Still visible last night in the back seat of her grandfather's otherwise pristine white Ford Taurus was a sandwich bag that once held crackers and a nearly empty baby bottle that appeared to have contained apple juice.

Crumbs that Sasha generated littered the cloth upholstery where the girl passed out and died.

The car that routinely took Sasha to her baby-sitter every weekday morning instead became a torrid tomb, apparently because her grandfather, Calvin Howell, simply forgot about her.

The temperature reached 96 degrees outside, according to the National Weather Service. The temperature inside the car probably exceeded 140 degrees.

"This is obviously a huge tragedy," said Police Capt. Thomas Lippo, of the department's homicide division.

No charges have been filed, Lippo said.

Lippo said Sasha, her mother, Aiesha, and her grandmother piled into Howell's car parked near their home on Ithan Street near Kingsessing Avenue about 6:40 a.m.

Howell, 54, dropped off his wife and daughter on Baltimore Avenue near 58th Street, so they could catch for work.

His next stop was to be Sasha's baby-sitter on Alden Street in Southwest Philadelphia.

But, Lippo said, "For some unknown reason, he forgot to drop her off and drove straight to work."

Nearly seven hours later, Howell left work as a city sanitation worker at 63rd Street and Eastwick Avenue, still not noticing his now-motionless, unconscious granddaughter in the back seat.

Howell went to an auto-repair shop to make an appointment for routine maintenance to his car, then drove back to the Ithan Street home he and his family.

It was then, about 2:25 p.m., that he discovered Sasha's lifeless body in the back seat.

She apparently had passed out, Lippo said. She was not in a car seat, he added.

Howell then called a neighbor who lives two doors from him and who is trained in CPR. She tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the baby until a medic unit arrived, said the neighbor's father, who requested anonymity.

He said his daughter, whom he declined to identify, had called him, clearly upset over the child's death.

He described Sasha's parents and grandparents as "a real good family."

Lisa Sanders, who identified herself as Sasha's stepmother, described her as "a good, sweet baby."

Howell, who is cooperating with police, called an ambulance, which rushed her to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she was pronounced dead at 2:51 p.m. of heat-related causes.

A nurse at the hospital called police.

According to Lippo, the police are "going under the assumption" that Sasha's death was an accident.

"That's all we have right now," Lippo said. "We're at the preliminary stages of this continuing investigation. All we know is it's heat-related."

Police said Sasha's mother had also been questioned.

Lippo said an autopsy by the medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The results of the autopsy, as well as the results of his investigation, will be handed over to the district attorney's office.

"It will be up to them to determine whether charges will proceed or not," Lippo said.

About four years ago, 21-month-old Angelika Gaines died after she was accidentally left overnight inside her parents locked van for more than seven hours during a July heat wave.

Her parents, the Rev. David Gaines and his wife, Yvette, of West Oak Lane, were not charged.