Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Mother Arrested in Death of Toddler Left in Hot Car

Audrionna Rhoades, 21, of Shelby Township left her 2-year-old in a minivan with the windows rolled up earlier this month, police say.

Updated: Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 10:49 a.m.

A Shelby Township mother was arrested without incident on Monday on charges of murder and neglect after police say she left her 2-year-old son in a hot car earlier this month. The boy died soon after being found in the car by another caregiver.

Audrionna Maria Rhoades, 21, was arrested without incident at a home in Auburn Hills by Shelby Township and Auburn Hills Police at about 4 p.m. She is charged with second degree murder, a life felony, and child negligent abuse, which carries a sentence of 15 years.

Rhoades and her son lived at the Dequindre Estates Mobile Home Park, near Hamlin and Dequindre roads, but his father lived out-of-state and was not involved in child care, according to Shelby Township Police Chief Roland Woelkers. Woelkers said that Rhoades worked weekdays in the Rochester area, usually placing the boy in her car on the way to work.

The car, a 2007 Dodge Caravan, was parked in the tree-less driveway with its windows rolled up. The temperature outside was in the 70s on Tuesday, however, when the boy was eventually transported to Troy Beaumont Hospital, he registered a temperature of 108 degrees, Woelkers said. 

Rhoades will be arraigned before Judge Douglas Shepherd in 41-A District Court, Shelby Township on September 24 at 1:30 p.m.


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