Rochester woman could face charges after 3 children left in car for hours

Emily Cutts, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

May 1—Three children were hospitalized Wednesday evening after police found them in a car at the city-county government center.

The three children, ages 1, 3 and 4, are believed to have been left in the car for at least 2 1/2 hours before being discovered by police shortly before 5:30 p.m.

Rochester police Capt. Casey Moilanen said a car alarm alerted officers to a potential issue. When the children were found, they were "soaking wet with sweat from the heat" and the 4-year-old child was very lethargic, according to Moilanen. The vehicle had no windows down and was directly in the sun, according to court records.

The children were taken by ambulance to Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys for evaluation and then released to social services.

Law enforcement learned that the children's mother, identified by police as 29-year-old Dectrini Boldien, was at the government center that day for a court hearing. court records indicate the hearing was scheduled for 2 p.m. Boldien was taken into custody just before 3 p.m. on a warrant out of Ramsey County, according to Moilanen.

Olmsted County Sheriff's Capt. Scott Behrns said Boldien was asked at least twice by detention deputies where her children were and she said they were being taken care of in the Twin Cities. Court records state that Boldien admitted not telling anyone about her children because she did to want to lose custody of them.

Boldien was charged in Olmsted County District Court with gross misdemeanor neglect or endangerment of a child. She was ordered released on conditions in that case as well as a gross misdemeanor domestic assault case, but is being held on a Ramsey County gross misdemeanor warrant, according to court records.

Kids and Car Safety, a national nonprofit that educates and tracks the deaths of children who die in hot cars, reported that the first hot- car child death of 2021 occurred on Sunday, April 25, in North Carolina. The nonprofit reported that preliminary findings of an autopsy done on the 5-month-old baby determined that she died of environmental hypothermia.

According to KidsAndCars.org, nearly 1,000 children have died in hot cars nationwide since 1990.