Mother charged in death of two-year-old left in car

Police have charged a 25-year-old East El Paso mother for the death of her toddler.

The girl died last month after being left in a hot car overnight. Officers arrested Daisy Mora Harper, the mother of two-year-old Hailey Marie Harper, on Wednesday.

ABC-7 attempted to obtain the arrest affadavit today, but Judge Max Munoz denied the request without explanation. So details on why police chose to charge Harper are still sketchy at this point. But those who live in the neighborhood have their ideas.

One neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, told ABC-7 she thinks alcohol and possibly drugs were involved.

“I think so because how can you forget the baby?” she said.

She added that she was shocked no one called the police until after noon the next day.

Harper, who according to her Facebook page is a graduate of Jefferson High School, has been charged with injury to a child by omission and criminal negligent homicide.

Those who live in the area are still struggling to figure out how someone could leave their child in a car overnight. Temperatures that day were in the mid-90’s.

“I think that’s just horrible,” another neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, told ABC-7. “I can understand the need to get loose and everything, but you have to understand you have a child. For them to go that long without noticing the kid or anything. And there was more than just the parents living in that home apparently.”

ABC-7 visited the home where the incident happened on Thursday, but no one answered the door. Neighbors said they have seen Harper’s husband at the home over the past month, but have not seen her.

According to child protective services, Harper also has a four-year-old boy who is now in the care of the father.

“For no one to have noticed that, considering there was more people in the house, that’s really just unbelievable,” a neighbor said.

While some were critical of how something like that could happen, other neighbors sympathized with the situation Harper now finds herself in.

“I feel so bad for her,” one neighbor said. “The baby, she’s not here right now. But how many years is she going to live with that in her mind.”

An autopsy confirmed that Hailey died of heat exposure. Experts say temperatures inside a car on a 90-degree day can reach 140 degrees in just a few minutes.

The ABC-7 I-team is still working to get Harper’s arrest affadavit and will update with more information as it comes available.