Cops: Grandpa Returned to Car 3 Times After Boy Died in Heat

Alabama man has been charged in toddler's death
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 22, 2022 12:44 AM CDT
Grandpa Charged in Hot Car Death of Boy, 2
Stock photo.   (Getty Images / MattGush)

An Alabama grandfather who had been taking his grandson to daycare in the mornings as his daughter, the boy's mother, recovered from hip surgery apparently forgot to drop the 2-year-old off Tuesday, with unimaginable consequences. The toddler, Ian Wiesman, was found dead in his grandfather's truck later that day in front of the daycare, and his grandfather, 56-year-old William “Bill” Wiesman, has been charged with reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, AL.com reports. Police emphasized that the child was not left in the vehicle intentionally, but noted that Wiesman returned to his truck three times throughout the course of the day and apparently never noticed Ian there. The boy was in the truck for about seven hours, on a day the temperature was in the 90s. He is the 29th child to die in a hot car in the US this year.

Wiesman told police he'd been picking Ian up in the mornings, dropping him off at daycare (and leaving his car seat there so his aunt could pick him up in the afternoons and bring him back home), and then going to work. On Tuesday afternoon, his daughter called to tell him that the boy's aunt was at the daycare to pick Ian up but the daycare said the child had never arrived that day. Wiesman insisted he'd dropped him off, and drove to the daycare, where the aunt discovered the boy's body, still strapped into his front-facing car seat in the back driver's side seat of his grandfather's truck. In addition to driving from his job to the daycare in the afternoon, Wiesman had also driven his truck home and then back to work during his lunch hour. "As a mom, I don’t think anybody ever understands it," the county DA says, per WBRC. She says the family is heartbroken. (More Alabama stories.)

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