DeKalb Mom Being Held In Hot Car Death In DeKalb

ATLANTA, GA -- A DeKalb County mother is facing criminal charges after she allegedly left her 1-year-old girl in a hot car last month outside a hair salon. Twenty-five-year-old Dijanelle Fowler is charged with child neglect and second-degree murder in the mid-June death of her daughter, Skylar Fowler.

DeKalb investigators said that Fowler left Skylar in her Hyundai Sonata with the air conditioning on when the mother went to get her hair done at the salon on Lavista Road. Authorities found the child dead at a parking deck at Emory University after the mother called 911. {SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

In the past three years, Georgia tragically has itself another high-profile hot car death case. And this one is eerily similar to that of Justin Ross Harris, a Cobb County father who left his 22-month-old son in the back seat of his car on a hot day while he worked a full shift at Home Depot's corporate headquarters.

In this newest case, DeKalb authorities who rushed to the scene were under the impression that they were responding to an emergency concerning the mother's health, a "seizure of some kind," according to a warrant obtained by news media. That's when they noticed the deceased child.

The death was deemed suspicious as authorities launched an investigation. Fowler was arrested earlier this week.

“She seemed to be a good kid. No criminal history," Capt. Jerry A. Lewis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Just made a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake.”

Fowler is due in court for a preliminary hearing August 3, according to court records.

Image via DeKalb County Sheriff's Office