13-month-old left in car as mom slept dies, AL officials say. She’s going to prison
A 13-month-old child died in a car outside an Alabama home in 2019 while his mom slept inside, authorities said.
She’s now been sentenced to 20 years in prison, AL.com reported on April 22.
Elizabeth Case was 36 at the time of her son Casen’s death, according to Alabama records.
One evening in October 2019, Case took her son “dumpster diving,” then returned home shortly before 6 a.m., according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Limestone County.
She went to bed and didn’t wake up until the child’s grandmother banged on the door at 1:30 p.m. because she couldn’t find her grandson, family said in the lawsuit.
Together, they searched for the child before finding him in the car, WHNT reported in 2023.
“Instead of seeking immediate medical assistance, Defendant Elizabeth Anne Case took Casen inside the home and inexplicably placed him in the shower,” the family said in the lawsuit.
The grandmother called 911, then three of them got in the car and drove in the direction of the hospital, meeting first responders along the way, according to WHNT.
The child was pronounced dead at the hospital, and his official cause of death was hyperthermia, or an overly high bodily temperature, family said in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was later dismissed, the attorney who filed it told McClatchy News.
The mom was initially charged with capital murder, but the charge was dismissed and she was indicted on lesser charges, according to WAFF. Case, now 40, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in March, and will spend 20 years in prison, the outlet reported.
The woman’s attorney information was not available in Limestone County jail records.
Limestone County is in northern Alabama along the border of Tennessee, about a 25-mile drive west from Huntsville.
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