ORLANDO, Fla. _ The driver of the day care van where a 3-year-old's body was found was arrested Thursday, according to the Orlando Police Department.
Deborah Denise St. Charles, 51, was taken into custody and faces charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, police said.
St. Charles failed to verify that every child had gotten out of the van, skipped a required head count, and left Myles Hill inside a van with temperatures that reached more than 140 degrees, according to an arrest affidavit.
According to the Florida Department of Children and Families, the suspect was not an approved driver in Little Miracles Academy's roster, after failing to pass transportation standards reviewed in July.
The report shows that Sandra Adkins, an employee at the day care, called authorities about 8:30 p.m. Monday to report a deceased child in the day care's parking lot shortly after Brenda Watts Myles, the child's grandmother, said the child was not brought home at the end of the day.
The cause of death, which the medical examiner's office cited as an accident, was hyperthermia as a result of environmental exposure.
