A mum desperately searching for her missing toddler found her dying in a hot car after the child sneaked off and clambered into the vehicle.
The mum's frantic search for her child ended in heartbreak as she found her child unresponsive inside a vehicle.
Police are not filing charges following the July 11 death in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, according to US reports.
According to weather forecasts the state recorded highs of 32C that day.
The case has sparked a stark warning young kids could be more at risk of climbing into hot cars unnoticed this summer as stressed parents juggle work and home-schooling during coronavirus lockdowns.
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Hopkinsville Detective Sergeant Todd DeArmond told local station WHOP News Radio the girl's mum told police she began looking for her daughter after noticing her missing.
It is believed the girl got inside the vehicle on her own, according to the report.
Emergency services took the girl to hospital where she was pronounced dead, a coroner said.
No other details on the incident have been released, and the girl's identity is not yet known.
But according to a United States organisation that works to raise awareness about the dangers of unattended children and vehicles the little girl died after "gaining access to a vehicle on her own."
"We are currently much lower than the average number of hot car deaths for this time of year due to the pandemic, but we are concerned that the numbers will increase as routines continue to shift and families begin going back to work," Kids AndCars president Janette Fennell said.
Nine children have already died in hot cars in the UK this year, according to the organisation's data
On average around 18 children die in hot cars in the US by this time of year, the nonprofit said.
According to the website's data, 53 children nationwide died last year from vehicular heatstroke, 54 died in 2018, and 43 lost their lives in 2017.
According to the Park Look Lock campaign, many cases of vehicular heatstroke involve children who were unknowingly left in vehicles or forgotten.
However the pandemic brought a higher risk of young children getting into trouble climbing into unlocked cars and boots to play, then finding they can't escape, according to the campaign.
A four-year-old boy died of heatstroke in that horrible way in Tomball, Texas just this April, the advocates warned.
According to its analysis of past tragedies, children aged two and three are most at risk as they are old enough to clamber into vehicles alone - but lack the ability to get out.
The highest risk days for children dying in hot cars are typically Saturday and Sunday when children are at home and not school.
However, the campaign warned that Covid-19 lockdowns measures were seeing more children normally at nursery school being home-schooled.
It warned: "The risks of these type of tragedies may be just as prevalent during the week."
KidsAndCars added in a statement to the Courier Journal following the latest tragic death: "As parents and caregivers focus on several priorities at once during these unprecedented times, supervision can be more difficult than ever,"
"Young children climb into unlocked cars and trunks to play, but they can’t always get out.
" With fewer parents and caregivers traveling to work, and fewer children attending childcare and preschool, it is imperative that all drivers, even those without children, lock their vehicles so children cannot gain access."
