A 2-year-old girl is dead and a family is searching for answers Thursday after the toddler was mistakenly left in a daycare center van.
The child was found in a vehicle parked at the Katie's Kids Learning Center in Delray Beach.
The parents of the child have been contacted and several relatives are puzzled as to how this could have happened.
"I just want to know how this happened," Willie Lester, the girl's grandfather, told the Sun-Sentinel. "I don't care if there were 200 kids in the van. Somebody's gotta do a headcount…How can you just forget somebody?"
Police said the girl, identified as Haley, was left in a van outside the daycare and died from the heat.
"It appears this child either fell asleep or was overlooked," said Jeff Messer, with the Delray Beach Police Department. "It's a small child, 2 1/2 year old female, would have been three in November, and was found this afternoon by an employee of the school who was getting ready to go drive the van."
The high temperature in Delray this afternoon was 90 degrees and with the heavy humidity, some heat indexes concluded it felt like it was closer to 100 degrees.
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It's still unclear how long the girl was in the van or how she got into the vehicle. Investigators are also trying to determine how the girl's absence went unnoticed by day care staff.
The Department of Health, who oversees day cares, says Katie's Kids opened at that location less than a year ago.
Inspection reports from the department show no serious violations in the past. They were completely in compliance at their last re-inspection April 9.
Authorities are still investigating the incident.
"It's so sad for everybody, that's all I can really say," said Messer.
