Update: Grandfather Charged in Death of Toddler Left in His Truck for 7 Hours – An Alabama man has been charged with reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide after he left his toddler grandson in his truck for seven hours on Tuesday — and was in and out of the vehicle three times before the boy was discovered.
Two-year-old Ian Wiesman was found dead in the back passenger seat of William “Bill” Wiesman’s truck Tuesday afternoon, AL.com reported. Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said the boy died from prolonged heat exposure.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the boy was found at about 3 p.m. outside Kids Campus daycare in Oneonta. Casey provided details about how the discovery came to be.
Update: Grandfather Charged in Death of Toddler Left in His Truck for 7 Hours
“These are not intentional acts. They are negligent acts, they are reckless acts,” Casey said. “He always thought he took the child to daycare. On three occasions he was back in the truck, and drove in the truck with the child in the back.
“As a result of his behavior, his acts, the child died,” she said.
An affidavit filed in the case says that Wiesman told investigators he had been taking Ian to daycare while his mother recovered from hip surgery, picking up the boy from his home and dropping him off at the daycare three miles away. The boy’s aunt picked him up in the afternoons.
On Tuesday, Wiesman said he dropped the boy off as usual at about 8 a.m. and drove to work, where he parked his truck. At 12:45 p.m., he drove home for lunch then returned to work.
At 2:45, the boy’s mother — Wiesman’s daughter — called and said the daycare told her Ian hadn’t been there, and his aunt was there to pick him up. Wiesman, still insisting he had dropped the boy off, drove to the daycare. His aunt met him outside and found Ian unresponsive, still in his car seat.
“It’s awful when it happens anywhere. It’s awful when you have to work these cases and then you go home to your babies and you see what you see, and videos,” Casey said. “My heart breaks for this family. This family is very upset.
“As a mom, I don’t think anybody ever understands it,” she said. “I didn’t sleep last night.”
“Everybody in the family is heartbroken,” she said.
Ian is the first child to die in a hot car in Alabama this year.
According to Kidsandcars.org, he was the 29th child to die in a hot car in the U.S. in 2022. Two other children died in hot cars on Tuesday — a 8-month-old girl in Jacksonville, Florida, and a 2-year-old boy in Houston, Texas.
