Prosecutor: Mom Told Stylist 'No Rush' as Kid Died in 129-Degree Car

Georgia denies bail for Dijanelle Fowler in death of 1-year-old daughter
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 5, 2017 8:50 AM CDT
Prosecutor: Mom Told Stylist 'No Rush' as Kid Died in 129-Degree Car
In this July 30, 2015 photo, a kids coalition uses a wireless monitor to record the temperature outside and inside of a closed vehicle at St. Mary's Market Days in Evansville, Ind. A proposed new law that would require carmakers to build alarms for backseats is being pushed by child advocates.   (Darrin Phegley/Evansville Courier & Press via AP, File)

The woman accused of second-degree murder in the hot-car death of her 1-year-old daughter has been denied bail in Georgia, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Prosecutors say Dijanelle Fowler, who is 25, spent more than five hours getting her hair braided at a salon on June 19 while Skylar Fowler died in a vehicle whose temperature reached 129 degrees. Fowler was visiting DeKalb County from South Carolina for a job interview at the time; the judge ruled that Fowler had few local ties and was thus a flight risk. "No rush," Fowler reportedly told her stylist. "Take your time."

Skylar's father, Louis Williams II, is an Air Force reservist who was serving in the Middle East when their daughter died. Williams also requested denial of bond, saying Fowler confessed to him after giving several false accounts of the circumstances leading to their daughter's death. Why Fowler—who says she left the car's air-conditioning running, which apparently killed the battery—would leave her baby for so many hours on such a hot day is "the million dollar question," Capt. Jerry Lewis told the Journal-Constitution last week. "She seemed to be a good kid. No criminal history. Just made a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake." Fowler was reportedly calm when she asked for a jump in the parking lot, after which she drove Skylar to Emory University Hospital. (One mom allegedly left her toddlers in a car overnight while she hung out with friends.)

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