Two toddlers die after mother intentionally left them in car for over 15 hours

Children had been locked inside a vehicle from Tuesday night until Wednesday noon

SAN ANTONIO: A 19-year-old central Texas mother has been charged with child endangerment for the deaths of her two daughters, ages 1 and 2, who were left in a car for about 15 hours, law enforcement officials said on Friday.

The children, Brynn Hawkins, 1, and Addyson Overgard-Eddy, 2, died on Thursday at University Hospital in San Antonio, where they were admitted a day earlier.

Amanda Hawkins bought the girls in the hospital on Thursday and said they were in grave condition after 'smelling flowers' from a nearby lake. According to her story, her two daughters and an unnamed 16-year-old were at the lake when the girls collapsed.



Kerr County Sheriff WR Hierholzer told CNN that Hawkins official statement said the girls got into something 'poisonous', however, after much determination and examination, the authorities realised that was not the case.

The children had actually been locked inside a vehicle from Tuesday night until Wednesday noon, while the mother and the 16-year-old male were at a friends' residence. The sheriff further went on to state that the male friend had gone inside the car to take a nap during this 15-hour period as well, but then went back in.

The children were unconscious when Hawkins took them out of the car, and she allegedly bathed them after, instead of rushing them to the hospital because "did not want to get into trouble". Her story began to broke under further questioning, the sheriff confirmed.



"This is by far the most horrific case of child endangerment that I have seen in the 37 years that I have been in law enforcement," Hierholzer told CNN. He even went on to say that the people inside the residence where Hawkins was said that they heard the children cry, but nobody went to check on them.

Hawkins has been arrested in San Antonio, and is currently in the Bexar County Jail before being transferred to the Kerr County Jail. Reuters reported that the authorities were considering charging Hawkins with murder.