Mom Held In Hot Car Death 'Seemed To Be A Good Kid': ICYMI

DECATUR, GA -- A DeKalb County woman who is facing criminal charges for allegedly leaving her child in a car for hours while she got her hair done at a salon has no history with state child protective agencies in Georgia and South Carolina, where she's from, Patch has learned.

Dijanelle Fowler, 25, didn't have a file with the Division of Family and Children Services in Georgia, where she was staying while visiting relatives when she was arrested, nor in her home state, according to news reports.

Her daughter, 1-year-old Skylar Fowler was found in a vehicle in the parking lot at Emory Hospital unresponsive after the mother called 911 to report "a seizure," according to DeKalb authorities. {SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

The case has baffled investigators, who waited several weeks to press charges, against Fowler. “She seemed to be a good kid,” DeKalb police Capt. Jerry A. Lewis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “No criminal history. Just made a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake.”

Dijanelle Fowler is charged with second-degree murder in her daughter's June 15 death. DeKalb investigators said that Fowler left Skylar in her Hyundai Sonata with the air conditioning on, but the car cut off at some point while the mother was inside the salon on Lavista Road.

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.

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

Image via DeKalb County Sheriff's Office