An Arizona father who left his two-year-old daughter to die in a sweltering car has died by suicide. Christopher Scholtes, 38, had admitted that he left his daughter in the car while he watched porn.
Scholtes was found dead in a Phoenix home just after 5 am on Wednesday, November 5, police told the New York Post. It was the same day he was scheduled to report to prison ahead of his sentencing. He was facing up to 30 years behind bars.
“Instead of coming in to take account for what has occurred here, we have been informed, and we have confirmed, that the father took his own life last night,” Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said in a statement.
Officials were confused when Scholtes failed to appear for the hearing. He had been ordered to hand himself over to police, according to ABC 15. Courthouse officials did not know he had died.
{{/usCountry}}Officials were confused when Scholtes failed to appear for the hearing. He had been ordered to hand himself over to police, according to ABC 15. Courthouse officials did not know he had died.
{{/usCountry}}Scholtes reportedly had a habit of leaving his children in the car. He pleaded guilty in October to second-degree murder, and would have possibly been sentenced to between 20 and 30 years this month.
The death of Christopher Scholtes’ daughter
Scholtes died over a year after his little daughter, Parker, was found dead in the driveway of their Marana home outside Tucson on a hot July afternoon in 2024. At the time, the temperature had soared to 109-degrees Fahrenheit.
Scholtes claimed that he left the child in the car at 12:30 pm for 30 minutes with the air conditioning on because she was sleeping, and he did not want to wake her up.
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However, according to court records, the girl was left in the car for more than three hours. He later admitted that he knew the vehicle would shut off automatically within a half-hour. While Parker died, her dad was inside, watching porn, playing video games and drinking beer.
Scholtes’ older children from a previous marriage told investigators that he had a habit of doing this, and would often leave them in the car when they were kids. His younger daughters with Parker’s mother, Erika, also said that their father frequently left all three of them strapped in the car and would go inside.
Parker’s heated up body was found when her anesthesiologist mother came home around 4. Bodycam footage showed the father telling responding officers that he had left the kid outside for “no more than 30, 45 minutes.” She’s very hot right now. We’re going to do everything we can,” cops told Scholtes.
Parker was rushed to the Banner University Medical Center, where her mother worked, but was declared dead within an hour. After learning of his daughter’s death, Scholtes became angry and defensive.
“So I’m being treated like a murderer?” he said in police bodycam footage when police told him he could not take a shower and they could no longer leave him alone.
Scholtes told police he had never done something like this before. However, his texts with his wife provide otherwise.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car,” the mother texted him after the death. “How many times have I told you?”
“Babe, I’m sorry,” he responded. “Babe, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be real.”
The mother, however, later requested Scholtes be allowed to come home after his arrest so that the family could grieve together.
Meanwhile, one of Scholtes’ older daughters from his previous marriages sued both him and Erika in October, accusing them of causing her emotional distress. She detailed incidents of being left in cars when she was a child. She also accused her dad and stepmom of battery and assault.
“The oldest daughter has suffered immensely from Christopher and Erika,” the 17-year-old girl’s guardian, Lindsay Eisenberg, told KVOA.
Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides are preventable. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).