2-year-old dies after being left in vehicle, father arrested
Posted: Jun 18, 2010 12:24 PM PDT
Updated: Jun 18, 2010 3:25 PM PDT

LONGVIEW, TX (KLTV) - Police say an East Texas toddler is dead after being left inside a hot SUV.

Officers were called to the Flamingo Mobile Home Park on Pine Tree Road in Longview just after 1 p.m. Friday.

They say the 2-year-old girl was found unconscious inside a car in her family's driveway. Police say the girl had been in car since 8:15 Friday morning. Police say she was by a 13-year-old sibling.

"It's really disturbing to know that we were over here, washing our cars and just living regular while she was sitting in the suburban not knowing," said Angela Shaw, a neighbor.

"When they called 9-1-1 they were able to know, through the noise and the demeanor of the person calling, that something terribly was wrong," said officer Kevin Brownlee, with Longview Police.

The child's father, Gabriel Mata Bocanegra, 41, is now being held on a charge of injury to a child, a second degree felony.

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Dad charged after child dies in vehicle
MICHAEL CAVAZOS

Posted: Friday, June 18, 2010 11:25 pm | Updated: 8:14 am, Sat Jun 19, 2010.

By Angela Ward award@news-journal.com | 1 comment

A Longview man was arrested Friday in connection with his 2-year-old daughter's death after she was left in a parked vehicle for several hours, police said.

Melody Bocanegra was pronounced dead at Good Shepherd Medical Center at 2:45 p.m. Friday by Justice of the Peace B.H. Jameson.

Gabriel Mata Bocanegra, 41, was held Friday in the Gregg County Jail, charged with injury to a child, a second-degree felony. His bond was not immediately set.

Police spokesman Kevin Brownlee said a 13-year old sibling discovered the toddler just before 1 p.m. in the driveway of Bocanegra's home. Investigators believe the child had been in the vehicle since 8:15 a.m., Brownlee said. Jameson also said it appeared the child had been left in the vehicle for about five hours.

Longview police and fire departments were dispatched to the Flamingo Mobile Home Park, 2403 Pine Tree Road, shortly after 1 p.m. for a check welfare call. Emergency responders arriving on-scene found the child unconscious and transported her to Good Shepherd Medical Center.

According to emergency radio transmissions between the ambulance crew and the hospital, the child was "asystole" — which means there was no apparent heartbeat.

Additional information was not immediately available.