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A father set to go to prison for the murder of his two-year-old daughter after leaving her in a scorching hot car for hours while he watched adult movies has died. Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office in Arizona listed Christopher Scholtes deceased on Wednesday (November 5), with no cause of death listed. Scholtes did not attend a hearing in Pima County Superior Court the same day, ahead of his sentencing on November 21. A Pima County Medical Examiner estimated that the temperature inside the car was around 43 °C when first responders arrived, confirming she died of heat exposure. The 38-year-old father had previously struck a deal with prosecutors in October, agreeing to plead guilty to the second-degree murder of his daughter, Parker, which took place in July 2024. He was set to be jailed for 20 to 30 years, but was granted bail until yesterday, Wednesday, when he was due to be taken into custody. On July 9, 2024, the father-of-three was arrested after leaving his youngest child in the car while he sat inside playing video games. Scholtes also searched for pornography on his PlayStation during that time and told investigators he left his two-year-old daughter in the car outside the family's home in Marana, a town about 100 miles south of Phoenix, so she could sleep. He had parked the 2023 Acura MDX in direct sunlight, with the car seat on the driver's side of the car which was a west-facing window. The father told authorities that he left his daughter inside the car with the air conditioning on for 30 minutes, but he later admitted that the car's engine automatically shuts off after half an hour. The girl's mother found her hours later, with the A/C automatically turned off, and outside temperatures reaching 43C. Video surveillance footage obtained by the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson showed that earlier that day, Scholtes shoplifted beer at a convenience store and a grocery store and apparently drank several of them in a bathroom while leaving the girl in the car. Scholtes initially claimed his daughter was inside the car for around 30 minutes, but surveillance footage shows him returning home at around 1pm, and his wife returning at 4pm, asking where their daughter was, three hours later. The couple raced out to the car where they found the youngster not moving, still strapped into the car seat. Emergency services raced to the scene and the young girl was transported to the hospital, but Parker did not survive. An autopsy found that the young girl's body temperature was 108.9F (42.72C). The medical examiner ruled her cause of death to be environmental heat exposure, ruled as an accident. Investigators who spoke to Scholtes' two other children, nine and five, said the siblings told them the children were regularly left alone in the vehicle by Scholtes for extended periods. In an interview with police, one of Scholtes' older daughters, aged nine and five, told police that her dad “still drinks too much beer,” the Star reported. “He keeps leaving us in the car when my mom told him to stop doing this,” she said. “That’s how he made my baby sister die.” Police said Scholtes admitted to knowing he had left his young daughter in the car, telling cops he usually parked in the garage but hadn't that day because there was exercise equipment in the way. The children also told police their dad "got distracted by playing his game and putting food away" while their little sister was left in the car. Police seized a PlayStation as part of the investigation, along with other electronics. In a text exchange, his wife, Erika Scholtes, allegedly warned him repeatedly to stop leaving the children in the vehicle. "I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you,” his wife wrote. “Babe, I’m sorry,” Scholtes responded. “We’ve lost her, she was perfect." “Babe our family. How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real." Scholtes' wife, an anesthesiologist, stood by her husband after the death and told a judge that he was a "pillar of the community" who had made a "big mistake." She spoke at a hearing just days after the death and argued for his release. “I’m just asking if you can allow him to come home to us so that we can all start the grieving process so he can bury our daughter with us... and that we can go through this whole process together as a family,” Erika told the judge. Scholtes allegedly began leaving one of his daughters locked in his car over a decade ago — and made a habit of doing it ever since. His 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage claimed that locking kids in cars while he “forgot” them was a regular occurrence for her dad. “The first time he did it was with me when I was younger than 7,” she told News 4 Tuscon . The teen filed a lawsuit just days before his death, alleging he created a home filled with “repeated physical, emotional, and psychological abuse” that’s left her battling depression and PTSD. “[Scholtes] intentionally caused Plaintiff to fear imminent harm and made harmful and offensive physical contact,” the teen alleged in the October 28 suit, which accused him of assault and battery and child abuse. She even accused her father of fraud, claiming he filed and maintained a bogus conservatorship while she was living with her now-late mother so he could pocket financial benefits for himself. “As a result, Plaintiff suffered severe emotional distress, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations, post traumatic stress, and long-term psychological harm,” the daughter alleged in her suit. Scholtes faced more public scrutiny when he was granted court approval to travel to Hawaii for a family vacation in May. He took took the vacation over the objections of prosecutors. Scholtes requested to travel to Hawaii with his wife and two surviving daughters from May 1 to May 9, according to court documents filed in Pima County Superior Court. On April 3, Judge Kimberly Ortiz agreed to consider the request, and after a hearing on April 15, she approved Scholtes' petition. The trip came 10 months after Scholtes' two-year-old daughter tragically died. Scholtes and Erika had recently moved to a $1million four-bedroom home in the suburbs of Phoenix, about an hour away from the property in Marana, where their daughter died.
