Georgia foster mom, Claudette Foster (pictured), has been charged with second-degree murder after three-year-old twins were found dead in a hot car
A Georgia foster mom has been charged with second-degree murder after three-year-old twins were found dead in a hot car.
Claudette Foster was charged about two weeks after Payton and Raelynn Keyes went missing on September 29.
Raelynn and Payton died inside the vehicle that was parked in the backyard of a home in the 200 block of Augusta Way in Hinesville, about 1.45pm, shortly after their foster parents called 911 to report them missing.
Temperatures had reached as high as 92 degrees Fahrenheit that day, according to investigators.
A police statement says autopsies determined the children died from accidental heatstroke.
Georgia law allows charging caregivers with second-degree murder when children die because of cruelty stemming from criminal negligence.
Foster is also charged with second-degree child cruelty.
Hinesville police Detective Bryan Wolfe said that Foster’s ‘lack of supervision for the children allowed them to enter the vehicle and pass away’.
Raelynn and Payton Keyes (pictured) were found dead inside a vehicle parked in the backyard of a home in the 200 block of Augusta Way in Hinesville, about 1.45pm on September 29, shortly after their foster parents called 911 to report them missing
Temperatures had reached as high as 92 degrees Fahrenheit that day, according to investigators. A police statement says autopsies determined the children (pictured) died from accidental heatstroke
Hinesville police Capt Tracey Howard said the foster carers and other family members searched desperately for the two girls when they couldn’t be found inside the home, scanning the backyard and surrounding neighborhood
Foster has been jailed without bond in Liberty County. It was not immediately known if she has an attorney.
Earlier this month, Skye Keyes, the twins’ biological mother expressed her heartbreak over their tragic deaths.
Keyes, said she last saw her daughters on September 27 with a caseworker. She told WTOC she’s devastated and her family has been left ‘broken’ by yet another tragic loss.
‘It’s a nightmare. It feels like a giant nightmare,’ she said. ‘I feel like we were the last ones to know our daughters died.’
Keyes and her husband would see the two girls once a week, admitting they lost custody of the girls during a difficult period of mourning the premature death of another child.
‘We got pregnant six months after we lost our first daughter,’ Keyes revealed. ‘She died at three weeks. We found out we were pregnant with the twins. They were born 10 weeks early.
Foster discovered the twins’ on a second examination of the backyard, finding their lifeless bodies in the backseat of the car
When cops (pictured at the scene) arrived, the twins were unresponsive inside the vehicle
They were officially pronounced dead by emergency medical personnel who also arrived at the scene
‘We went through a lot after we lost our daughter, and we went through more after the girls were born. Bad luck. Just one thing after another.’
The bereaved mother said anyone who knew the twins would agree they had bundles of energy, capable of putting a smile on the sternest of faces.
Hinesville police Capt Tracey Howard said the foster carers and other family members searched desperately for the two girls when they couldn’t be found inside the home, scanning the backyard and surrounding neighborhood.
The carers discovered the twins’ on a second examination of the backyard, finding their lifeless bodies in the backseat of the car.
The address they were found at was not the little girls’ family home, but it was a residence they’d been visiting with their foster parents.
Raelynn and Payton were under the care of the foster parents with two other siblings for around a year-and-a-half, authorities said.
When cops arrived, the twins were unresponsive inside the vehicle.
They were officially pronounced dead by emergency medical personnel who also arrived at the scene.