It's an image that Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler says will stick with his officers forever - seeing a 6 month old baby girl unresponsive, after being left in a hot car for hours in Belcamp on Sunday.
"I'm thankful that in my 11 years as sheriff, this is the first time that we have had one of these cases, and I pray it's the last," Sheriff Gahler told WMAR-2 News on Thursday.
It's the second hot car death in Maryland this summer; it happened to a two year old girl in Montgomery County back in May.
No charges have been filed yet in either case. That decision is up to the state's attorneys.
WATCH: After two hot car deaths in MD this summer, experts warn parents: it can happen to anyone
“At the time of the death, the child was in the care of the father and, the investigation is still active. You know, we're working hand in hand with the state's attorney, but it appears, you know, that the father just forgot that he had left the baby in the car," Sheriff Gahler said.
That's the case more than half the time - about 55% - when it comes to hot car deaths nationwide, according to Kids and Car Safety.
And the first thought most parents have when they hear that - how could you forget your child?
"And that is a parent's worst mistake is thinking it won't happen to them," Julie Siejack, clinical nurse manager at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health and a child passenger safety technician and instructor, told WMAR-2 News.
"This is actually a very normal and common memory failure, and it can happen to the most loving, responsible parents," echoed Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety.
Rollins explains how our two memory systems compete with one another, and when the less attentive one hijacks our brains, it can have catastrophic consequences.
Our more sophisticated memory system, the hippocampus, reminds us if we need to stop at the store, or drop off our kid at a daycare. But our more primitive memory system, called the basal ganglia, tends to takes over when we're tired or stressed, and puts us on autopilot. And the basal ganglia can’t account for changes in routine. So if you’re supposed to do a daycare drop off, for example, on a day or at a time you don’t normally do it, it’s easy to forget that when your basal ganglia has taken the wheel, literally.
“That habit memory part of your brain, that basal ganglia is literally unable to differentiate between something important like a child and something insignificant, like a gallon of milk,” Rollins said. “And honestly, I think that this kind of memory failure has happened to almost every parent out there. But it didn't end with catastrophic results because something interrupted that routine. You look down, you saw the diaper bag or the baby made a noise in the backseat, and you realize, 'oh my gosh, I'm on my way to work, not daycare.' And, you know, we kind of laugh it off when that happens because nothing bad happened. But when the right circumstances align, and there is no reminder, there is no diaper bag sitting on the passenger seat, there is no sound in the back seat because the baby's asleep, that is when catastrophe can happen.”
Almost that exact scenario played out just yesterday in San Antonio Wednesday afternoon. A mother drove to work with her 5 year old boy in the backseat, never realizing she hadn't dropped him off at preschool that morning.
It's tragic, but is it criminal?
"In my experience in doing this for 34 years and also defending some of these cases, it's rare that we see the state not take these charges into the criminal justice system," Michelle Suskauer, a criminal defense attorney in South Florida, said.
But she says there's no "hard and fast rule," and that it varies case by case.
"And sometimes we're not talking about an intentional act; we're talking about negligence, but negligence that rises to the level of a crime. And so it depends state by state, how that gets addressed. For example, in Maryland, you cannot leave a child under the age of 8 by themselves. So that alone, even without causing any injury to the child, is a misdemeanor, which requires a penalty."
Rollins agrees there's really no consistency in how prosecutors and courts handle these cases. According to national statistics, she said about half the time there are charges. She argues criminalizing the act of forgetting your child in a hot car furthers a dangerous misconception.
"When we see these mug shots of parents on the news and, you know, they're in jail outfits and in the courtroom, we see them as criminals, and then we associate this issue with being a criminal thing or a neglectful bad parent thing, and nothing could be further from the truth.
And so when we see that, it really kind of pushes us further into that mindset of like, this is not something I need to worry about."
Rollins and Siejack both agree that the number one tip for parents is to create a physical reminder that your child is in the backseat, as inconceivable as it may seem that you'd forget.
“So grab an old stuffy, put it in the back seat. Anytime you buckle your child into the car seat, you bring that stuffed animal up to the front seat as a visual and physical cue that your child is with you," Rollins said.
"Kids have to sit rear facing until at least 2 years of age. So we get very accustomed to seeing the backside of that car seat in the car," Siejack told WMAR-2 News. "So it just becomes a piece of the furniture in the car. And so you need some sort of signal or reminder."
Siejack says tragedy happens fast.
"20 minutes? On a very hot day. And even in cooler temperatures, like if it's 60 degrees outside, you can still have that greenhouse effect occurring inside the vehicle and the vehicle will warm up 80% in just 20 minute time frame," she said. "Even cracking the windows, or leaving the windows down doesn't really help that. That heat still builds up and gets encapsulated inside the body of the vehicle."
"The temperature in a vehicle rises exponentially once the car is turned off," Suskauer said. "There's no safe amount of time to leave a child unattended in a car."