The mother of a northwest Georgia boy left in a hot car for nearly three hours Saturday said she refuses to place blame for his death on her parents, whom she called the “best two grandparents any baby ever had.”
Jaxon Taylor, 11 months old, died in an SUV outside his family’s home in Chickamauga, about 10 miles south of the Tennessee border. Authorities believe the child’s grandparents left him in the car after returning from church around 2 p.m. He was forgotten about until almost 5 p.m., when his mother, a night-shift nurse, woke up and asked where he was.
That mother, Mandie Hendershot, wrote on Facebook late Monday that what happened was a “horrible mistake.”
“I am in more pain than any human has ever experienced, but I chose to let go of hatred and blame,” she wrote. “I remember my sweet boy with love and grief, and I will always love him.”
An incident report obtained Tuesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution offers more insight into how the child was forgotten.
Meta Hendershot, Jaxon’s grandmother, told police that she opened the rear door where he was sitting before retrieving the mail and going inside the home to unload a “snack bag” she had packed for Jaxon and a granddaughter. About 15 minutes later, the granddaughter left with her parents, who had been waiting to pick her up. Meta Hendershot then laid down to take a nap.
“She said she believed the passenger rear door that she opened (for someone to retrieve Jaxon) had slammed shut as she walked into the house,” the incident report said. The car was parked on a “slight angle,” police said.
Kyle Hendershot, the grandfather, told police he “got stuff out of the back of the vehicle” when they arrived home, then took the dog for a walk. He then laid down with his wife.
“He believed at the time that someone else had gotten Jaxon out of the car,” the incident report said.
Mandie Hendershot woke up around 4:45 p.m. and got ready for work before going to her parents’ room to find and feed her son.
“She asked them where (Jaxon) was,” the incident report said, “and her father immediately jumped up and ran out the front door.”
They retrieved Jaxon, and his mother began administering CPR and running a tub of cold water to try and cool him down. Paramedics called to the scene also administered CPR, but the infant was pronounced dead upon arrival at Hutcheson Medical Center — the same hospital where his mother works.
Jaxon’s father was not at the home at the time of the incident.
Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson told The Associated Press on Tuesday that there was “not anything that we have uncovered to this point that shows any criminal intent.”
Wilson said that, in the coming weeks, his department’s investigation will be turned over to a local prosecutor, who will make the decision on whether or not to file criminal charges.
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