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2 months ago
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Twin toddlers were found dead in the back of their family's hot car after being 'accidentally left in the vehicle for an extended period of time.'
Ariel and Avery, aged two, were found around 3pm Thursday in Norman, Oklahoma.
An unnamed family member had started driving the white car, before turning around and realizing that the twins were dead in the backseat.
Officers pronounced the children dead at the scene after being called for a wellness check. Police are still investigating how or why they were left in the scorching car.
On that day, the temperature in the area was about 90F outside. According to the National Weather Service, a vehicle can reach up to 120F in just 30 minutes when it is 88F outside.
Twin toddlers, Ariel and Avery, were found dead inside a hot car around 3pm Thursday in Norman, Oklahoma
The two-year-olds were found after the Norman Police Department responded to a welfare check request made by a driver who discovered the car stopped in the 1000 block of W Brooks Street. (Pictured: Ariel and Avery with their father Marshall Suter)
'We would have had to determine that there was probable cause indicating a willful negligence directly linking them to the death of those children, and at this time, the investigation is just showing us that it’s far more an accident,' Sarah Schettler with the Normal Police Department told KOCO 5.
Police are not currently recommending charges and said the family is cooperating with the investigation.
Officials said the family member had set off for a journey in the car when they suddenly noticed Ariel and Avery were dead in the back seat of the vehicle.
Cops believe the children had been in the car all day - but the timeline of events is still unclear.
Early on Sunday, the children's father Marshall Suter took to Facebook and posted: 'I can't believe this,' as family and friends showed their support.
Katherine Dawson, Ariel and Avery's mother, also took to social media on Saturday about their tragic deaths.
'I know at this time lots of people are wanting to reach out and be there for us. Both Marshall and I are struggling more than imaginable.
'We ask that you please respect that we need some space right now while we process and grieve.
'If you need to reach us we have lots of family on both sides that can get in contact with us,' Katherine said.
Suter and Dawson, who share four children together including Ariel and Avery, often post loving photos of their kids on social media - commemorating birthdays and holidays.
Officers soon located the vehicle (pictured) and pronounced the girls dead at the scene. Police are still investigating why they were left in the scorching car
Andrew Kabara, a neighbor in the area, said cars often park on the street because a lot of parents drop off students at McKinley Elementary School or the University of Oklahoma - a couple blocks from where the toddlers were found.
'We pay attention to most of them,' Kabara told The Oklahoman.
'This is a close-knit neighborhood, and we want to know who's coming through here and all of that, but never thought something like this,' he added.
The girls were described as 'precious little babies'
On the day the girls' were discovered Kabara said he grew worried after he spotted multiple cars pull up across the street.
'We feel for the children who passed and their parents and the rest of their family.
'We can't imagine. After we heard it [Friday] morning, our hearts just broke that they were just two little kids across the street from us.
'That just broke our hearts. We can't believe something happened so close. It's a shame,' Kabara said, adding that their deaths were 'a tragic mistake.'
Flowers have been placed on the lawn near where Ariel and Avery were found.
A GoFundMe page was created by Kourtnee Usey, the cousin of Marshall Suter, the girls' father.
'All funds will be used to give these precious little babies the funeral they deserve, and take some weight off of this father’s shoulders after dealing with such a tragic and HEARTBREAKING loss,' Kourtnee wrote.
'No one truly knows the pain of losing a child until you are going through it.'
As of Sunday night, the page raised more than $3,700.
The twins are seen with their mother Katherine Dawson (right) and their other siblings in December 2023
Police are not currently recommending charges and said the family is cooperating with the investigation
DailyMail.com contacted the Norman Police Department. The horrific incident marks the first heat-related child death in the state this year.
A three-year-old boy was found dead inside a roasting SUV on August 13 after his father abandoned him to go shopping.
The child died inside an SUV in the parking lot of a supermarket in Kalamazoo County, Michigan when his father stopped there after work.
The Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office is treating the death as a heat-related incident.
Temperatures in Vicksburg, a village in Kalamazoo County where the death took place, reached the mid-80s that day.
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