Police arrested a woman they say left her infant daughter unattended in a hot van for hours Saturday while she attended a funeral for the three women killed in a St. Petersburg hit-and-run crash.

Natasha Willowmenia Graver, 32, again left the 4-month-old girl in the van when she returned home, police said. The child was eventually treated by paramedics for heat exposure and transported to All Children's Hospital, where she is stable but is still undergoing tests.

According to St. Petersburg police, Graver went to the 1 p.m. service at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 3300 31st Street S, for the three women who were killed by a speeding wrong-way driver June 26.

When she got to the church parking lot, Graver told officers, she forgot about her child and went inside, leaving the windows up and the engine off.

The service ended, and Graver drove to her home on the 2000 block of 42nd Street S, still unaware that her daughter was in the back seat. She got home and again left the infant in the back seat unattended and with the windows up, police said.

According to police, the child's father was home at the time and apparently did not question the whereabouts of the infant, assuming his wife had left her with a relative. The couple made plans to eat out and didn't notice the child until going out to the van to leave.

At that point, they found the infant unresponsive and called 911.

Officers said they found the infant's restrain seat in the center of the van's back seat, just behind and to the right of the driver's seat. They estimated that the girl had been left in the hot van unattended for about 3 1/2 hours.

Neighbors said the charges are shocking.

"It's a shock to me because she always has the baby with her," said Othel Dawson.

Graver was arrested and booked in the Pinellas County Jail early Sunday on one count of child abuse. Child Protection investigators responded to home but left Graver's four other children, ages 1 to 13, in the custody of her husband.



"In Pinellas County alone we found from April of last year until June of this year there’s 183 instances with children left in vehicles," said Lt. Steve Lawrence, Deputy Fire Marshal St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue.

