After Twin Ga. Sisters Die in Hot Car, Caretaker Is Charged With Murder
Authorities in Georgia have arrested the foster parent of twin 3-year-old girls who died last month after being left in a hot car.
A press release from the Hinesville Police indicates Claudette Foster turned herself in Monday and faces two counts each of second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children stemming from the deaths of Raelynn and Payton Keyes.
On September 29, the twin sisters “were located deceased in a vehicle” in Hinesville, reads the release.
“The children were in the care of a foster parent, Claudette Foster, at the time of their passing,” the statement alleges.
Foster’s age was not provided.
An autopsy revealed the children died from heatstroke.
Foster will appear in court Tuesday, where it is likely she will be asked to enter pleas to the four charges against her.
Information on her attorney was not immediately available.
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Shortly after the girls’ deaths, police said they were last seen when a caregiver put them to bed, and it wasn’t clear how they ended up in the car.
First responders reported the temperature to be 92 degrees Fahrenheit when the girls were found.
The girls’ biological mother, Skye Keyes, said a daughter of hers had died shortly before the birth of the twins. She called Payton and Raelynn a “double-blessing.”
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“This whole thing is devastating,” Keyes said shortly after the twins died. “We have already lost one daughter in 2014 and six months after she passed we found out we were having our girls. We got double the blessing and now they’re gone, due to someone else’s negligence. We have two sons to stay strong for but feel like our world has been ripped apart.”
She continued, “Losing a child is the worst possible thing you could ever go through.”
