Dijanelle Fowler, 25 (pictured), turned herself into Dekalb County, Georgia police on July 17 and was charged with murder, child cruelty and concealing a death
A 25-year-old woman charged in the death of her one-year-old daughter told her hairdresser that there was ‘no rush’ and she could ‘take your time’ while her toddler was left to die in the inside of a car whose temperature reached 129 degrees, prosecutors said on Friday.
Dijanelle Fowler was denied bond on Friday by a judge in a DeKalb County, Georgia courtroom, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
She faces a second-degree murder charge for the death of one-year-old Skylar Fowler.
While Fowler getting her hair braided at a local salon, her toddler was locked inside of her mother’s vehicle for six hours as the heat index (a measurement which combines air temperature and humidity) climbed to 150.
Police say Dijanelle Fowler, 25, arrived for her hair appointment in Tucker, Georgia at 10.04am on June 15, and left her one-year-old daughter Skylar in the car with the air conditioning on.
But soon after she entered the salon, the car died and baby Skylar was left to bake in the hot vehicle for six hours without her mother going to check in on her once.
While inside the salon, Skylar reportedly told the hair stylist: ‘Take your time.’
Police say Fowler’s one-year-old baby daughter Skylar died after her mother left her in a hot car for six hours while she got her hair done (mother and daughter above)
Police believe Fowler meant to leave the air conditioning on for the girl, but the car died and she never went to check on her during the six-hour appointment (mother and daughter above)
She also said there was ‘no rush’ since she had put her baby in day care.
Fowler traveled to the area from her home in South Carolina. She said she was in town for a job interview.
A relative Fowler had been staying with stopped by the salon while she was being braided. Fowler told the relative that Skylar was with a friend.
Surveillance video shows Fowler returning to her car at 4pm, at which point she didn’t call police, but got a man at the salon’s help in restarting her car.
After returning to the car, Fowler didn’t call police but had a man in the salon jump start her car
Fowler drove to Emory University Hospital and called police at 4.54pm. It appears that she tried to fake a seizure when police arrived on the scene
Police believe that at this point, Fowler’s daughter was dead, and that she may have hidden the body from the man with clothes she had in the car.
‘Between 4 and 4:54 (p.m.) she texted the child’s godfather that she was going to go to an urgent care for headaches,’ a detective wrote. ‘(Fowler) also Googled about signs of seizures.’
Police believe Fowler then drove to Emory University Hospital, where she called 911 from a parking garage around 4.54pm, reporting an unconscious woman.
Police initially believed that the girl died after her mom suffered a seizure in the hot car. But investigators soon found flaws in Fowler’s (pictured) story
Officers reported to the scene and found Fowler ‘unconscious’ and baby Skylar dead in the car.
At the time, Captain Jerry A. Lewis of the homicide squad said they believed Fowler had suffered a seizure, and that her daughter had died after, while trapped in the car.
But a medical examiner later determined that the girl had been dead for much longer.
Police were finally able to come up with the correct timeline by reviewing surveillance footage and Fowler’s Google searches.
In early July, investigators had enough to arrest Fowler, but she had fled town.
They say she traveled to South Carolina, New Jersey and Florida before turning herself into authorities on July 17.
She has been charged with second-degree murder, second-degree cruelty to children and concealing death. She is being held without bond at the Dekalb County Jail.
Because investigators believe that Fowler did not mean to kill her daughter, she’s only being charged with second-degree murder, and not first-degree murder.
According to baby Skylar’s obituary, she was from Charleston, South Carolina and is survived by her parents, Louis R. Williams II and Fowler.