Babies Die in Closed Car; Mother Is Held

Left unattended in a car in the midday sun, three-month-old twins--a boy and a girl--died Sunday, apparently from heat exposure, authorities said.

While their mother visited a friend at a nearby business, the infants--Adam and Ashley Ernst--were left in children’s car seats in the back of an older model two-door Chevrolet. Only one of the two windows was opened about an inch, Garden Grove police said.

The mother, Beverly J. Ernst, 25, of Anaheim, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and willful cruelty to a child resulting in a death, Lt. Stu Finkelstein said. Late Sunday, she was booked at the Orange County Jail after questioning by detectives. Bail was set at $25,000.

Police, who released few details, could not say how long the infants had been left in the car, which was not parked in a shaded area.

Leonard Wosic, a friend of Ernst, said the children were alone for at least 15 minutes before the mother checked on them and found that they were not breathing.

Wosic said Ernst pulled both children out of the car and gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to one while another friend, identified as Scott Morrow, did the same with the second baby.

Both Adam, taken to the University of California, Irvine, Medical Center, and Ashley, taken to Garden Grove Medical Center, were dead on arrival shortly after 12:30 p.m., police and coroner’s officials said.

The temperature about noon Sunday in neighboring Santa Ana was 78 degrees, but “it really doesn’t take too long” for a closed car to heat up quickly, Finkelstein said.

Wosic said he had gone out to get some soft drinks and returned to the chemical store on Euclid Avenue in about 15 minutes.

Wosic, who is a partner in the business with Morrow, said he knew Ernst was in the shop, because her car was parked nearby, but he did not know her babies were in the car.

“She usually takes them in,” he said.

Wosic, an old friend of Ernst, said the woman had begun dating Morrow a few weeks ago. He said he found the couple in the back room of the store.

“She went out to check on the kids and told me to call paramedics, because they weren’t breathing,” Wosic said. By then, he said, “their faces were white.

Autopsies were scheduled for today. An Orange County coroner’s spokesman said the children probably died from hyperthermia, above-normal body temperature.

Wosic said Ernst has two other young children who live with her former husband.