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A 7-month-old North Carolina girl died in Hamlet Monday, and her foster mother now faces charges for allegedly leaving her in a hot minivan.
Around 6 p.m. on Monday, officers responded to a home on Charlotte Street where they discovered the baby unresponsive, News Channel 9 reports. Court documents indicated she later died at the hospital from excessive heat.
The foster mother, Djuna Bostick, now faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and negligent child abuse.
Hamlet police haven’t revealed how long the child was inside the minivan, but temperatures on Monday were around 90 degrees.
According to Jan Null, CCM, Adjunct Professor of Meteorology at San Jose State University, the incident marks the “6th Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke (PVH) death nationwide in 2025, and the first in NC.”
“Since 1998, there have now been 42 PVH deaths in North Carolina and 1016 in the United States. On this date last year, there had been 4 such deaths,” Null said in an emailed statement to CrimeOnline.
The Richmond Observer reports that Bostick is behind bars at the Richmond County Jail on a $500,000 secured bond.
Her first court appearance is scheduled for June 23.
Meanwhile, Hamlet police told News Channel 9 that the investigation is ongoing.
Check back for updates.
[Feature Photo via Hamlet PD]