Christopher Scholtes, the man who stood accused of second-degree murder, was facing decades in prison after leaving his two-year-old daughter, Parker, in the back of the car on a July day that reached 42 degrees Celsius. She had been in the car for three hours, at which point her father had been playing the PlayStation, watching adult material, and putting the food away in the kitchen.
In what’s now being treated as a suicide, Christopher Scholtes was found dead at his home in Phoenix, Arizona, ahead of his November sentencing. Here’s the tragic story from start to finish.
Credit: Instagram
Parker was found by her mother after three hours in the hot car
Parker’s mother, Erika, arrived home to find her daughter in the boiling hot car in July 2024. As a doctor, she attempted CPR as she waited for the police and the Northwest Fire District to arrive at the scene.
Though Christopher claimed to have put the air conditioning on for Parker whilst she was sleeping, he later admitted to knowing it would turn off automatically after some time.
“I want to say it was no more than 30, 45 minutes, and I don’t think the air was off that entire time,” he told officers in body camera footage, when the actual length of time was over three hours.
“I think there was a time in between – I had checked on her last, it was still running, she was still sleeping. And then when I went back out, the car was off.”
Shockingly, it was not the first time he had left his kids in the car. While interviewing Christopher’s surviving daughters, who were six and nine at the time, they revealed a pattern of such behaviour.
When Parker was being rushed to Banner University Medical Centre, Erika texted her husband: “I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you?”
He was arrested three days later
Three days after Parker’s death, on July 12, the police returned to arrest him. He screamed “no” before falling to his knees. He was charged with second-degree murder and intentional child abuse, both of which he denied.
He rejected one plea, then took one with a longer sentence
Credit: Pima County Sheriff’s Department
Christopher Scholtes pleaded not guilty to the charges. Though he was first offered a plea deal of 10 years, he rejected it. The day before the trial, he accepted a second plea deal for between 20 to 30 years. If he had gone to trial, he could have faced life in prison or even the death penalty.
“It’s a tragedy of the utmost proportions,” his lawyer argued at the time.
During a preliminary hearing on July 15, his wife actually advocated for a reduced sentence as she begged the judge to allow him to come home to “start the grieving process.”
“I’m just asking if you can allow him to come home to us so we can all start the grieving process. So that he can bury our daughter with us this upcoming week, and [so] that we can go through this poor process together as a family,” she said.
“This was a big mistake and I think that it doesn’t represent him. I just want the girls to see their father so that I don’t have to tell them tonight that they’re going to endure another loss.”
Credit: Court TV
He died by suicide this week, before he could be jailed
Before sentencing, Christopher was released on bail under the condition that he not have unsupervised time with his two remaining children. Despite that, a judge permitted him to go to Hawaii with his family.
On Wednesday, November 5, Christopher Scholtes’ body was found at a property in Phoenix. Though the cause of death is yet to be revealed, it’s being treated as a suicide ahead of an autopsy, Brian Bower from the Phoenix Police Department told PEOPLE. He died on the same day he was due to hand himself in until sentencing.
He is survived by his wife, Erika, and two daughters.
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Featured image credit: Instagram
