Exclusive: Fargo mom of baby left in hot car says she feared her child died

In a Valley News Live exclusive interview, the mom of a toddler left inside a hot car at a Fargo mall parking lot says she was scared her baby was going to die.

Selena Casarez, 21, said she received a call from the Fargo Police Department Thursday that made her heart sink.

“It was his cell phone number and the police answered it and said, ‘this is an emergency I need you here,’” Casarez said.

Casarez said when she arrived at West Acres Mall, police said her 13-month daughter was alone in a hot car while the child’s dad went shopping.

Robert Henson, 22, was arrested by Fargo officers and charged with child neglect.

“Like I just lost all respect for him and I'm pretty upset about it,” Casarez said.

According to court documents, a Good Samaritan spotted the baby covered in sweat with a red face.

Casarez said she never expected Henson would leave their baby inside a hot car. Police recorded the temperature that afternoon at 87 degrees and sunny.

“He said he was going to go job searching and probably go eat,” Casarez said. “I didn't know he was going to go shopping in the mall and leave her in the vehicle.”

Court documents stated the car’s moon roof was open and the windows were down about five inches.

Fargo police said Henson told them he was gone for about 10 minutes. However, they pulled surveillance video showing he had left the baby inside the car for about an hour.

There’s new technology available in some higher end vehicles that detect whether anything, or anyone, is left in the backseat.

“Right here on rear seat reminder, you can turn it on or off to tell you if this rear door has been open during a 10 minute ignition cycle,” Nevin Beauchamp, a sales representative with Luther Family Buick and GMC, said.

During a demonstration, Beauchamp showed us a 2019 GMC Denali that will remind passengers to check their backseat.

“It says rear seat reminder, look in rear seat,” Beauchamp said pointing at the vehicle’s display screen.

Beauchamp said this detection has been available as a standard in most GMC vehicles since 2016.

For those who can’t afford a new vehicle with this technology, Amazon has a list of similar equipment one can purchase that’ll check the backseat.

According to health experts, a car can heat up by 20 degrees in the span of 10 minutes, which's enough to kill a child.