A Tennessee family is demanding answers after a 6-year-old girl with nonverbal autism died after she was allegedly left behind on a daycare bus during a brutally hot summer day.
Winter Jones was found Thursday afternoon inside a bus connected to Kid University daycare in Cordova, Tennessee, according to local reports.
Memphis police were called to the daycare around 3:23 p.m. and discovered the little girl in desperate need of medical help. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Winter’s uncle, Christopher Jones, said the child had nonverbal autism and was unable to tell anyone that she was still trapped inside the vehicle.
“She couldn’t advocate for herself,” he told WJTV.
According to her family, Winter normally rode a Kid University bus to Macon-Hall Elementary School before returning to the daycare after classes.
But on Thursday, Christopher said, something went terribly wrong.
“The ball was dropped and she never even made it into the school,” he said.
Family members claim nobody realized Winter was still inside the bus until staff returned to the vehicle to prepare to pick up students from school.
“No one knew that she was still on the bus until they got back on the bus and got ready to go and pick up the students from school,” Christopher said.
A woman who works near the daycare described hearing screaming after the horrifying discovery.
Shabnam Manhas told WJTV she went outside and saw a woman lying on the ground and crying uncontrollably.
“We kept on trying to ask what happened, and she was just crying,” Manhas said. “We tried to get her up. She just could not talk.”
The distraught woman was reportedly the driver of the bus where Winter was found. Her name has not been released.
Temperatures in the Memphis area climbed to around 97 degrees that day, according to WMC, meaning the inside of a closed vehicle could have quickly become dangerously hot.
Winter’s father, Bryan Jones, told WJTV that his daughter’s internal body temperature had reportedly reached 109 degrees when she was discovered.
Christopher, who also has a 6-year-old child with nonverbal autism, said Winter was especially vulnerable because she could not call out for help.
“She couldn’t open her mouth and say, ‘Hey, I’m still on the bus,’ or anything, nothing like that,” he said.
Police have not announced any arrests.
The Memphis Police Department is continuing to investigate exactly how Winter was allegedly left inside the bus and who, if anyone, could face charges in connection with her death.
American incompetence is the real pandemic in this country.