- Amy Kay Bethers, 29, is charged with child abuse homicide.
- Her toddler died in 2019 after being left in a hot car.
- The child's body temperature reached 109.8°F; charges filed in 4th District Court.
SANTAQUIN — A mother is accused of leaving her young child in a hot car in 2019, resulting in the toddler's death.
Amy Kay Bethers, 29, was charged Thursday in 4th District Court with child abuse homicide, a first-degree felony.
On Aug. 13, 2019, about 5:45 p.m., Bethers brought her 6-month-old son - identified in court documents only as W.T. - to Mountain View Hospital. An obituary identifies the toddler as Wade Ron Taylor.
The boy's "jaw was locked tight in the onset of rigor mortis, he was warm to the touch, he had sloughing of the skin on his scalp, face, ear and chest, his skin was discolored and mottled, and (his) eyes were open with dryness over the cornea and fixated pupils," according to charging documents. The toddler's body temperature was recorded at 109.8 degrees Fahrenheit and he was pronounced deceased about 6:15 p.m.
Doctors "believed that W.T.'s death was probably related to being in a hot environment for too long," the charges state.
Bethers told police she was driving with her child to a storage unit in Santaquin "when she noticed W.T. was not as 'wiggly and chattery' as usual, so she 'rolled down the windows some more' and turned around to go home," according to the charges.
Bethers told police she noticed he was "getting discolored" and his lips turning purple, "and he started 'getting stiff' and drooling," the charges state.
She told investigators that she had been driving for two to three hours and her vehicle did not have air conditioning. Temperatures that day reached about 93 degrees Fahrenheit.
W.T.'s "immediate cause of death was hyperthermia," but the manner "'could not be determined' because her findings from the autopsy were not consistent with Bether's accounting of events," according to the charges.
A doctor later concluded "that under conditions where both windows were up and the vehicle was traveling 25 mph, W.T.'s temperature could reach 109.8 degrees in 50-70 minutes; under conditions where both windows were up and the vehicle was traveling 45 mph, W.T.'s temperature could reach 109.8 degrees in 70-150 minutes; under conditions where both windows were up and the vehicle was traveling 65 mph, there would be little to no change in W.T.'s temperature during anytime of the day. (The doctor) concluded that under conditions where the vehicle was parked in the sun and both windows were closed, W.T.'s temperature could reach 109.8 degrees in 40-50 minutes; under conditions where the vehicle was parked in the shade and both windows were closed, there would be no change in W.T.'s temperature," the charges state.
Court documents do not explain why it took several years to follow up on the charges.
