Hot car case kills nine-year-old child the same day
SANTA NELLA, California––Merced County, California sheriff’s deputies and animal control officers on July 1, 2025 pulled 106 overheated, emaciated, mostly longhaired cats alive from a U-Haul van in a Taco Bell parking lot in Santa Nella, a “census-designated place” with about 1,700 residents.
Also found in the van were the remains of another 28 cats.
Alleged cat owner and breeder Jeannie Maxon, 69, was arrested on 93 counts of cruelty to animals.
Maxon was a longtime resident of Long Beach, California, about 300 miles south, through the only part of the state more arid than Death Valley and the Mojave desert.
Who is Jeannie Maxon?
Jeannie Maxon’s personal circumstances remain unclear. Before becoming a cat breeder, she appears to have been a hair products distributor.
Maxon in 2006, according to a Los Angeles Times report, was at least the fifth alleged victim to file charges against a man named Charles Crutcher, apparently a one-time journalist, who serially defrauded women in both the U.S. and Britain by promising to marry them, and allegedly violently responded when found out.
Maxon was 50 at the time; Crutcher 57.
Who was Charles Crutcher?
Summarized United Press International, “Crutcher, now known as Charles Decrevecoeur, was convicted in 1994 and sentenced to one year in prison for taking a stolen 17th century painting out of the United States and trying to sell it to a London gallery.”
Crutcher’s trial was delayed and had to be restarted, reported Guardian correspondent Dan Glaister, “after a juror fell in love with the defendant.”
Resumed the United Press International summary, “Crutcher was exposed in the 1980s when, posing as Lord Peter de Vere Beauclerk in Britain,” who was a real person unaware of the scam, “he announced plans to wed the royal jeweler’s daughter,” Stella Quekett, in a London newspaper.
“Maxon says Decrevecoeur falsely posed as a Long Beach firefighter and filed suits and complaints designed to ‘ruin my life’ once she learned the truth.
“Loosely translated, Decrevecoeur means “heartbreaker” in French.”
The most important lesson from the case
But the lesson the Merced County Sheriff’s Department emphasized from Maxon’s case history, so far as it is known, is that “On a warm day, temperatures inside a car can soar to extreme levels in just a few minutes, even with the windows open. This can lead to heatstroke, dehydration, and even death of an animal left inside.”
Even as the rescue of the Maxon cats was underway in Santa Nella, Rancho Coastal Humane Society public relations manager John Van Zante warned in Encinitas, 375 miles south, that “Pets and people die every summer after being left in hot cars ‘for just a couple of minutes.’
“130 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit”
“A quick stop to buy a cold drink or a loaf of bread takes five to ten minutes or more,” Van Zante said. “That’s long enough for the temperature in a closed vehicle to reach 130 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
“That’s hot enough that a sleeping baby, senior, or pet left in the vehicle could suffer and even die.”
Van Zante, as he has annually for 26 years now, alerted media throughout southern California that on the afternoon of July 1, 2025, “We will hold our summer heat danger demonstration.”
Dramatic demonstration
For many years Van Zante would get into a car, place a digital thermometer on the dashboard, then close the doors and windows with video cameras rolling.
Now 72 years old, Van Zante no longer does that himself. But in 2025 Rancho Coastal Humane Society community outreach manager Niki Plasse, 30, sat in for him.
“Members of the media are invited to join Niki in the car, first come first served, at their own risk,” Van Zante said.
“We plan to get Niki out of the car at 110 degrees,” Van Zante explained. “During the 2024 demonstration, the temperature in the car went from 80 to 113 degrees in one minute and 12 seconds. That’s why we hold this demonstration. It gets so hot, and it happens so fast, that it can be deadly.”
64-degree rise in under 10 minutes
Updated Van Zante later in the day, “It was 77 degrees Fahrenheit at the Rancho Coastal Humane Society in Encinitas at 2:47 this afternoon.
“At 2:48 we put a digital thermometer in our shelter station wagon, then closed the doors and windows.
“By 2:52 it was 131 degrees in the car.
“At 2:57 it was 141.
“That’s a 64 degree increase in less than 10 minutes. At 141 degrees, any person or pet left in the vehicle would be in serious danger.”
Death in Galena Park
Or already dead.
Just as the Rancho Coastal Humane Society demonstration began, Cory McCord and Maria Aguilera of KHOU television in Houston, Texas reported that a nine-year-old girl had died “after being left unattended in a car at a Galena Park industrial plant parking lot, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
“Gonzalez said a woman who works at the facility,” located alongside the Houston Ship Channel, “brought her daughter to work and knowingly left her in the car when her shift began around 6 a.m.,” McCord and Aguilera detailed.
“The child was left with some water and the windows cracked, Gonzalez said,” but “When the mother got off work around 2:00 p.m., the 9-year-old was unresponsive.”
(CHP Golden Gate Division photo.)
1,138 children since 1990
Explained Texas Children’s Hospital pediatrician and emergency medical specialist Anthony Arredondo, “Once you start getting to a body core temperature higher than 102, 104, or higher, that can cause significant damage to the brain and organs. The longer” the heat exposure, “the worse it is.”
Finished McCord and Aguilera, “According to the National Safety Council, 38 children die every year after being left in hot cars.”
According to the organization Kids & Car Safety, “Since 1990, at least 1,138 children have died in hot cars in the United States and at least another 7,500 survived with varying degrees of injury.”
The Galena Park nine-year-old was the thirteenth child to die in a hot car in 2025.
No one keeps track
How many dogs and other animals have died in hot cars, no one knows because no agency actually keeps track. But ANIMALS 24-7 has tried since 1999.
Thousands of animals per year die from heat stress in commercial shipments of animals gone awry.
(See Postal error kills up to 15,000 newly hatched chicks, leaves SPCA with 2,000+.)
Dozens of dogs and cats die each year from heat stress in bungled adoption transport operations.
(See How the ASPCA cooked 26 dogs in a truck: source comes forward.)
And of course there are alleged animal hoarders, like Jeannie Maxon.
Twelve overheated pit bulls in a van
The most notorious hot car case of 2025 involving dogs, so far, came on March 1, in Oklahoma City.
According to Deanne Stein of KWTV, “Two dog owners were charged with felony animal cruelty after 12 dogs were found in a parked car on the verge of heat stroke.
“The dogs, including six pit bulls and six puppies approximately two weeks old, were discovered trapped in the car for nearly eight hours, with the windows rolled up, no food or water, and temperatures inside the vehicle reaching over 100 degrees.
“Several of the dogs were found to have injuries consistent with dog fighting, including open wounds in various stages of healing and infection,” Stein continued.
“The car itself was reported to be covered in feces, trash, and old clothing.
“Court documents reveal this was not the first time the owners were warned about the condition of the dogs. Investigators say that the dogs had lived in the car since December, and previous warnings were ignored,” Stein added.
Cop threatened to bust woman for giving dog water
In both the Maxon case and the Oklahoma City case, police promptly responded to “animals unattended in hot car” cases, when called by concerned citizens.
But there are still those in law enforcement who have not gotten the message.
Reported Michael Warrick and Emily Van de Riet for WBTV in Cornelius, North Carolina,
“Suzanne Vella said on June 7, 2025 she saw a dog panting inside a hot car parked in a shopping center parking lot,” in 90-degree heat, and “immediately knew she had to do something.
“Vella said she called 911 and looked in the area for the dog’s owner, but after not finding the owner, she opened the car door – which was unlocked – and gave the dog some water.”
A police officer who arrived eight minutes later, about the same time as the dog’s owner, “asked the dog’s owner if he wanted to press charges against Vella for entering his car. The owner of the dog said ‘no’ and left the scene, according to police,” Warrick and Van de Riet said.
Vella told Warrick and Van de Riet that waiting another eight minutes might have been several minutes too late for the dog.
“Doggie mode”
Tesla vehicles come with a built-in “Doggie mode” which, when turned on from the dashboard computer screen, keeps the cabin temperature in a parked car comfortable for dogs, cats, and even humans, for as long as the battery holds out, which can be many hours.
But Maine Department of Public Safety officers do not drive Teslas, or––apparently––any other vehicle with a comparable feature.
(Maine Department of Public Safety Communications photo)
Baxter
On May 21, 2025, Baxter, the three-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever who was the first officially designated Maine Department of Public Safety “comfort dog,” died in an overheated car at the Bangor Regional Communications Center, after the engine stopped, stopping the air conditioning too.
“The Maine Department of Public Safety said it is reviewing the circumstances surrounding Baxter’s death. The dog was a regular passenger in the vehicle,” reported Marc Fortier for NBC.
Baxter was at least the 44th dog used by law enforcement to die in a hot vehicle since 2000, according to the ANIMALS 24-7 case log.
Eight law enforcement dogs died in a single incident on July 27, 2023.
(See Police dogs killed by driving into 100º heat index at rush hour with bad AC.)
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