Texas child dies after allegedly being left in car while mother worked full shift

A nine-year-old child died in Texas on Tuesday after being left alone in a car, authorities say.

The tragedy occurred in the gated employee parking lot of an industrial complex in Galena Park. The child's mother had left her daughter in a vehicle while she began her 6 a.m. shift at the USG office, according to police. The identities of the mother and the child were not released to the public.

During a news conference, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez explained the child had been left with some water, with the vehicle's windows partially down and sunshades up. He guessed the girl had remained there until her mother's shift ended at 2 p.m.

"I don't know if anyone checked on the child throughout the day," Gonzalez said.

Upon returning to the car, the mother found the child unresponsive and alerted first responders at 2:06 p.m. Despite life-saving efforts by emergency personnel, the child was pronounced dead upon arriving at a hospital. Gonzalez confirmed her mother had been detained and questioned, but it remains unclear if she will face charges for her daughter's death.

"You can be sympathetic to her situation," Gonzalez said, clarifying that investigators did not know why the girl accompanied her mother to work. "It's never acceptable to leave a child in the car."

Two other Texas children died in separate incidents after being left in hot vehicles over the weekend, according to data by Kids and Car Safety. The child's death in Galena Park marks the 13th in the U.S. in 2025.

Texas law prohibits leaving young children alone in cars

It’s never safe to leave children or pets unattended in a vehicle — not even for a few minutes, not even in your own driveway, and not even with the air conditioning running on remote start. In Texas, it's also illegal to leave a child alone in a car for more than five minutes if they’re under the age of 7.However, it's even more dangerous on hot days, when the risk can turn deadly quickly, as interior temperatures can soar to life-threatening levels in just a matter of minutes.

Over the past 25 years, more than 1,010 children have died of heatstroke after they were left or were trapped in a hot car. In 2018 and 2019, there were a record number of hot car deaths, with 53 children dying each year, the most in at least 25 years, according to NoHeatStroke.org.