Deeply disturbing new photos highlight the suffering a two-year-old girl endured as she died in a baking hot SUV after being left there by her father.
Parker Scholtes died while strapped into her car seat in the driveway of her family home in the Tucson suburb of Marana, Arizona, on a 109°F day last July.
Her father, Christopher Scholtes, left her napping for three hours in the back of his car while drinking beer, playing video games and watching pornography inside the family’s air-conditioned home.
Parker was only found when her mother, Erika, 37, came home from work as an anesthesiologist at the same hospital the little girl was rushed to.
Scholtes, 38, took his own life in his car via carbon monoxide poisoning on November 5, the same day he was due to report to jail to begin a 20 to 30-year sentence for second-degree murder.
Crime scene photos newly obtained by the Daily Mail show tiny handprints on the inside of the window in the blue family 2023 Acura MDX.
The haunting marks on the rear driver’s side window were just inches from where Parker’s forward-facing car seat was buckled in.
Police testing found the surface temperature of the car seat was 149.1F, according to detailed incident reports by the Marana Police Department.
Crime scene photos taken by the Marana Police Department showed tiny handprints on the inside of the window in the car inches from where Parker was strapped in
Parker Scholtes, 2, died of heatstroke after her father left her napping in a hot car while he drank beer, watched porn and played video games for three hours
Christopher Scholtes (left) and his wife Dr Erika Scholtes, holding Parker in her arms, along with their two older daughters
On the floor below Parker’s feet was an iPad with a pink case and two tiny, child-sized pink sandals.
The window was facing west, absorbing the full brunt of the scorching sun that quickly caused the temperature inside the car to skyrocket.
The photo of the fingerprints suggests Parker may have desperately tried to claw for help as she perished in the ferocious heat.
Another heartbreaking photo shows the small pink dress with flowers printed on it that Parker was wearing, lying on the kitchen floor and slashed open by paramedics.
Officers wrote in their reports that it was such a hot day that, as they collected evidence, they needed to take frequent breaks inside air-conditioned cars, douse themselves in cold water and call for more drinks to avoid heatstroke themselves.
‘I placed my hand on the hood of the car to check for engine heat. I noted within about a second I began to feel a burning sensation on my hand and had to pull it away from the vehicle to avoid being burned,’ one wrote.
Scholtes told officers that the Acura was usually parked in the family’s garage, but his wife Erika had bought him a Peloton treadmill for Father’s Day three weeks earlier, which was being stored in its place.
So, he had parked the Acura in the driveway, 23ft from the front door.
Parker was trapped in the car until after 4pm when Erika arrived home from her work at Banner University Medical Center in Tucson – where, tragically, their little girl was then pronounced dead at 4.58pm.
The blue 2023 Acura MDX parked in the driveway of the family home in Marana, Arizona on July 9, 2024 – the day Parker died
Another photo taken from Parker’s point of view – the haunting prints on the rear driver’s side window were just inches from where she was sitting
The Chicco seat on which Parker was sitting is visible in this photo. On the floor below Parker’s feet was an iPad with a pink case, and two tiny pink child-sized sandals
The Acura was usually parked in the garage, but his wife Erika bought him a Peloton treadmill for Father’s Day three weeks earlier that was being stored there (pictured)
Scholtes’s two surviving daughters described to detectives the frantic moment before the couple realized where Parker was and sprinted to the car.
‘[One of the girls] said when her mom got home she asked, “Where’s the baby?” and her dad said, “Where’s the baby!?” and ran outside,’ one officer wrote.
‘”My dad started screaming cause he walked outside and he saw that she was in the car still, her lips were purple and she wasn’t breathing.”
‘She stated Parker did not look the same. Her skin was lighter than usual, her legs were covered with black stuff, and she had chapped purple lips.
‘When they saw her mom and dad crying, they knew Parker was dead.’
Erika, an attending anesthesiologist, ran inside holding her, dialed 911 and gave Parker CPR until paramedics arrived.
Police described Parker’s dress lying on the kitchen floor, near where first responders tried in vain to revive her.
‘A pink flower dress size 3T from the kitchen floor next to the island. The dress was wet and smelled of urine. It was cut on the front from the bottom up to the chest area,’ one wrote in their report.
Another heartbreaking photo showed the small pink dress with flowers printed on it that Parker was wearing, laying on the kitchen floor and slashed open by paramedics
The kitchen of the home where Scholtes’s wife Erika and then first responders tried in vain to revive her
The blue Acura outside the house in Marana, Arizona, with Erika’s white Tesla parked next to it
Scholtes, wearing a Vans cap backwards, a lip ring, and flip-flops, told police that he left Parker in the car with the engine running and the air-conditioning on because she was asleep when they arrived home.
However, he lost track of time and the engine automatically shut off after about 20 minutes – as police testing confirmed.
‘I swore she was in the house playing with her sisters like she always does. I’ve just been resting and icing, taking acetaminophen and ibuprofen for my sciatica pain right now,’ he told police, according to their reports.
Scholtes was in a single-vehicle crash in October 2019 that caused him to suffer two broken vertebrae. Though they healed and he was no longer taking prescription medication, he often used an ice pack – one of which was found on the couch.
However, the two surviving daughters told police their father had been distracted while gaming on his PlayStation 5, which was seized as evidence.
Officers wrote in their reports that the lounge room looked like someone had been doing just that.
‘The headset and controller were on the coffee table next to an open and half-empty Dr Pepper can; the can was room temperature,’ they wrote.
‘Laying on the sofa directly across from the controller were two adult socks, a pillow, and a blanket. The pillow was positioned so that someone could see the television.’
Analysis of his phone also found that Scholtes was searching for clothing sales and watching adult videos while his daughter died.
Scholtes in a photo taken by police on the day that Parker died, wearing a Vans cap backwards, a lip ring and flip-flops
Parker was trapped in her Chicco forward-facing car seat buckled in to the back seats
Police testing found the surface temperature of the car seat was 149.1F
Officers wrote that after Parker was rushed to hospital, Scholtes began pacing the house and turned on the shower, saying he wanted to rinse off and go to the hospital.
Police told him he could not take a shower as he needed to be processed for evidence, and he ‘seemed frustrated by this’.
‘I’m being treated like a murderer, I just lost my baby,’ he told them, according to their reports. He ‘continually’ repeated his desire to shower and was told he could not.
At another point that day, Scholtes went under the crime scene tape surrounding the Acura and tried to get inside until police pulled him away.
He said he wanted to get items from inside the car before it was impounded, but was told everything inside was being seized as evidence. He only walked away when Erika told him to get inside the house.
Scholtes’s surviving daughters said their father was ‘bawling’ all night after Parker’s death and ‘saying it was all his fault’.
However, ‘[one of the girls] said it was not his fault, it was actually a “little accident”.’
The girls appeared to have been coached by their parents on what to tell police, as they told them they ‘needed to tell them that he is a good dad and it was just an accident’.
‘[She] said her big sister, mom, grandma, uncles, her other grandma, and her “papa” all told her that her dad was a good dad and that it was an accident,’ police wrote.
Officers wrote in their reports that the lounge room looked like someone had been gaming on the PlayStation, as Scholtes’s daughters told them, with the controllers on the couch and pillows positioned towards the TV – and a half-drunk can of Dr Pepper
Scholtes played video games on his PlayStation 5 (circled) for much of the three hours Parker was left in the car, slowly dying
The headphones and controller Scholtes used to operate his PlayStation
Erika made the same claim when it was her turn to be interviewed, saying her husband was ‘having a really hard time with it’.
‘This is a really terrible mistake, is what it comes down to,’ she told police, according to the report.
‘She said he was feeling responsible and guilty about what happened.’
Erika claimed ‘things have been really good for her and Chris recently’ because he quit drinking alcohol three months earlier.
‘She stated that there was never any abuse, but if he would drink when they went on a vacation, it just was not a great time.’
However, Scholtes had not quit drinking at all – though he may have hidden his continued consumption from his wife.
Security cameras caught him shoplifting three cans of beer from a convenience store on his way home before leaving Parker in the car, one of which he discreetly drank in a gas station toilet.
Erika Scholtes, 37, was an anesthesiologist at the same hospital her daughter was rushed to. She was at work when Parker died but stood by her late husband
Scholtes left Parker napping with the air-conditioning on and the car running outside his then-home during 109F weather – but it switched off after 20 minutes
The Scholtes family pictured together in happier times. Dr Erika Scholtes must now contend with the loss of her husband and her youngest daughter
Erika continued to stand by her husband up to his suicide – petitioning the court for his release and for permission to take a holiday to Maui, and buying a stunning $1million four-bedroom, 2,369sq ft Italian villa-style family home in Phoenix in April.
The killer dad rejected a plea deal in March that would have seen him serve up to ten years behind bars.
Just six months later, Scholtes had no choice but to accept a far worse deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder and be jailed for 20 to 30 years without parole.
But he was allowed to stay out on bail until November 5 when he would be taken into custody, and used that time to plan his suicide.
Scholtes was ‘found deceased in his car, which was parked in the garage’, police said.
