An Arizona dad who left his daughter to die in a scorching car dodged justice when he killed himself instead of reporting to prison for her murder this week, the attorney who prosecuted him said in a searing statement while offering tearjerking words to the young girl’s siblings.
“This little girl’s voice was nearly silenced because justice was not served appropriately this morning,” Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said Wednesday afternoon after confirming deadbeat dad Christopher Scholtes had committed suicide the night before.
“But it has not, and will not be silenced,” she added.
Scholtes, 38, was found dead in a Phoenix home Wednesday morning, hours before he was due to turn himself in to police to begin a decades-long prison term.
He pleaded guilty in October to second-degree murder for leaving his 2-year-old daughter, Parker, in a car in his driveway on a 109-degree day while he was in their house watching porn, playing video games and drinking beer for more than three hours in July 2024.
Scholtes was due to be sentenced later in November after reporting to prison.
He was expected to be hit with 20 to 30 years behind bars.
But instead of facing the consequences of his actions, he took his own life — further devastating his surviving wife and three daughters, who have already endured so much.
And Conover directed most of her comments to them.
“May you be surrounded by love. May you receive all of the support you deserve and need, and then some,” she said.
“May you know and believe that you can survive and thrive. I have proof.”
Conover went on to say how her office was filled with counselors who specialize in the kind of tragedies the surviving Scholtes girls have endured, and said their services were available if ever needed.
“They’ve watched people like you survive and thrive, and are now living here in our community as successful and happy adults,” she said.
“This is what we wish for you and know you can achieve,” Conover added.
“And when you look back on this time as the years follow, may you not feel tied down by what happened here, but rather lifted up by your baby sister’s wings from up above.”
Scholtes’ daughters allegedly endured years of neglect and abuse at his hands.
His 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage filed a lawsuit just days before his death, accusing him of running a home filled with “repeated physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.”
She separately accused him of locking her in cars when she was a kid more than 10 years ago, while his younger daughters also told investigators that he would regularly leave them locked in the car while he went inside.
His own wife even indicated that he made a habit of the dangerous behavior.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car,” she texted her husband after Parker died. “How many times have I told you?”
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