Dustin Lee Dennis, 31, has been released from jail after surveillance footage showed his children climbing into his truck own their own
An Oklahoma father accused of the deaths of his young son and daughter after they spent five hours in a hot truck has been released from jail after a video showed they climbed into the vehicle on their own.
Dustin Dennis, 31, was released after investigators reviewed a neighbor’s surveillance camera footage that showed his four-year-old daughter, Tegan, and three-year-old son, Ryan, getting into the truck but not coming back out.
The Tulsa district attorney presented the new evidence to the judge who initially set Dennis’ bond at $750,000, and he was released, authorities said Monday.
No formal charges have been filed.
Dennis was arrested Saturday on two second-degree murder warrants and his court date was set for this Friday.
Dennis had told police that he took his children to a QuikTrip store around noon Saturday. Upon arriving home, he went inside and fell asleep for four or five hours.
Police said the children were in the car for five hours as the temperature hit low 90s in Tulsa on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Dennis told police he woke up to find his daughter Teagan, 4, and son Ryan, 3, missing
They were found dead after five hours in their dad’s truck when the temperature hit low the 90s in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday
Dennis said he had fallen asleep shortly after driving with his children to a convenience store around noon
Dennis told police that after waking up he was unable to find his children, according to Fox 23.
He told them he found the pair on the floorboard of the truck. The truck is said to have reached 95 degrees.
Dennis called 911 and moved the children into the living room of the family home where paramedics pronounced the children dead.
‘Video surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home confirmed that the children managed to get into the truck and tragically never got out,’ the Tulsa District Attorney’s Office said on Monday.
After reviewing the new evidence provided by detectives from the Child Crisis Unit, a judge released him.
‘It is always important to note that our Constitution guarantees the presumption of innocence for any person accused of or arrested for a crime,’ the DA statement added.
‘That presumption of innocence remains until and unless a judge or jury determines otherwise.’
Police previously said they received video from a next door neighbor who filmed Dennis locking up his truck without taking the children back inside with him
Dennis was a former soldier in the Army and ran a children’s bouncy house business
Police previously said they had received video from a next door neighbor who filmed Dennis locking up his truck without taking the children back inside with him.
Dennis is pictured with his daughter Teagan
Writing on his Facebook profile on Thursday, Dennis appeared to tell of his love for his children, who did not live with him.
‘2 in the morning up watching my kids sleep, I can’t believe they’re mine, I love them so much and nobody in this world could ever make me feel as loved as they do. The other day I was so depressed because I just missed them, and I got to thinking of when they get older and become adults,’ he wrote.
‘If you don’t have kids you may not understand this but that is the scariest but most amazing thing to think of, watching them become their own person and seeing what they will experience and achieve.
He added: ‘I hope our bond only grows stronger, I hope they always want to call me or see me just to talk or ask for advice. I can’t imagine this world without them.’
Dennis had recently posted a heartfelt tribute to his children on his Facebook page
In the days before they died, Dennis said he couldn’t imagine a world without his children