Texas mom charged after deaths of 2 toddlers left in hot car

KENS-TV, San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO — A Texas woman whose two young daughters died this week after she left them in a hot car overnight has been charged with child endangerment, authorities say.

Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer said Amanda Hawkins, 19, was arrested Thursday in San Antonio and is being held on $70,000 bond.

Investigators say Hawkins and an unidentified 16-year-old male showed up at Peterson Regional Medical Center with her two children, 1-year-old Brynn Hawkins and 2-year-old Addyson Overgard-Eddy.

The girls reportedly were in grave condition and were transported to University Hospital in San Antonio. Both girls died at around 5 p.m. Thursday. Hierholzer says autopsies have been ordered.

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Hawkins told hospital personnel she and the girls had been "smelling flowers" at Flat Rock and that the girls collapsed as they were getting ready to leave.

The sheriff's office said it was determined that the girls had actually been left in their mother's car in Kerrville, about 65 miles northwest of San Antonio, for more than 15 hours from Tuesday night until midday Wednesday while "she and other friends were inside a residence." Temperatures were in the 80s on Wednesday.

"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 said in a statement.

Contributing: The Associated Press