A tragic incident unfolded in Florida when a toddler passed away after his father inadvertently left him in a hot car. The father mistakenly believed he had dropped his son off at daycare, only to face the devastating realization hours later.

Emergency services were alerted to the situation at the early childhood education center, A World of Discovery Academy, located in Plantation, a suburb roughly six miles from Fort Lauderdale. Responding to a report of a child found deceased in a vehicle, police arrived at the daycare around 5:30 p.m. on Monday, according to a statement posted on X by Plantation Police.

Upon arrival, officials from the Plantation Fire Department confirmed the heartbreaking news that the child had passed away.

Leslie Novoa, director and owner of the academy, shared with the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the victim was an 18-month-old boy who was enrolled at the bilingual early education center.

Novoa recounted to the outlet that the boy’s father was responsible for dropping him off at the school that morning. However, in a tragic oversight, the father forgot his son was still in the car and proceeded to work.

When the father returned in the afternoon to pick up his son, he realized the child had never been dropped off.

The academy director said she then opened the back door of the father’s car and found the boy in the back seat — prompting her to call 911 immediately.

“This is a tragedy that happened to them and to all of us,” Novoa told the outlet, describing the boy and his parents as a “wonderful family.”

The Plantation Police Department said it has opened a death investigation.

Temperatures in Plantation reached a high of 94 degrees on Monday, with the afternoon heat index sweltering at 102 degrees, according to AccuWeather.

The tragedy marks the third hot car death involving a child in 2026.

A 3-year-old boy died after being unknowingly left in a hot car in Hillsborough County by his father on June 20, WFLA reported.

The father told deputies that he found his 3-year-old unresponsive in a vehicle parked outside the home.

That case remains under investigation.

About two weeks earlier, Scott Allen Gardner, 33, allegedly locked his 18-month-old son, Sebastian, inside his truck when he freshened up his ‘do and stopped at Hanky Panky’s Lounge in Ormond Beach, Florida, on June 6, police said.

The toddler was left alone inside the blistering vehicle for more than three hours as temperatures outside soared to 92 degrees.

The father allegedly gave police multiple false accounts of what happened before his son’s death — and was arrested days later after police tracked him down to his mother’s home in Ormond Beach, the sheriff’s office said.

Since 1990, more than 1,100 children have died in hot cars in the United States, with 88% of the deaths nationwide being children 3 years old or younger, according to statistics provided by the Kids and Car Safety organization.

On average, 40 children die each year from heatstroke inside a vehicle across the nation. At least another 7,500 kids have survived with varying degrees of injury.

From 1990 to 2024, 123 of those deaths were in Florida.

The organization warns that cars will experience the “greenhouse effect” when outside temperatures exceed 80 degrees.

Even with the windows cracked, temperatures inside a car can reach 125 degrees in minutes, doing nothing to slow the deadly heating process.

On Tuesday morning, while investigating a suspicious smell, police discovered human remains in the chimney of a public school located in Queens, New York.

The unsettling discovery was made at P.S./I.S. 113 Anthony J. Pranzo just before 9 a.m. Authorities were promptly notified and are now in the process of identifying the individual.

The city’s medical examiner has retrieved the remains and will be responsible for determining the cause of death.

At this time, it remains a mystery how long the remains have been in the chimney or how they got there in the first place.

No students or staff were in the building when the remains were uncovered, as school ended for the summer on Friday and the school was closed for construction, police said.

Contractors had been working on the building over the last few days, and police are now trying to confirm whether all the workers have been accounted for, according to the New York Daily News.

Permits were obtained for wiring, hot water heating and other work, City Buildings Department records show.

The City Department of Education described the discovery of the corpse as “deeply upsetting and concerning.”

In a tragic turn of events, a grandmother alleged to have poisoned her daughter and four grandchildren mere days before the children were supposed to visit their father was memorialized in a brief, two-line obituary.

Amy Steadman, 64, was discovered deceased in a Mechanicville, New York apartment on June 23. Her daughter, 44-year-old Sarah Myers, and her grandchildren—13-year-old Harper, 11-year-old Hudson, and 10-year-old twins Gavin and Gracelynn—were also found dead at the scene.

According to Mechanicville Police Chief William Rabbitt, evidence from the scene strongly indicates that Steadman was behind the tragic deaths of the family members.

Chief Rabbitt cited the presence of a handwritten note and several bottles containing prescription and over-the-counter medications at the residence, hinting at a potential poisoning scenario, as reported by the Democrat and Chronicle.

Sources confided to NewsChannel 13 that the grandmother harbored resentment towards the children’s father, who was set to have custody of them over the summer.

Autopsies by the Albany Medical Center revealed that one of the four children died from ‘fatal sharp-force injuries,’ Chief Rabbitt said. 

But an obituary published by New Comer Cremations and Funerals now simply says: ‘Amy J Steadman, 64, passed away on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.’

‘Per the request of the family, services were held privately.’ 

Police discovered the bodies at around 6.20pm after receiving a call for a welfare check, as the family had not been seen for several days.

‘The Mechanicville Police Department, in partnership with the New York State Police, remains committed to conducting a thorough and complete investigation while providing as much information as possible without compromising the integrity of that investigation,’ Rabbitt said. 

‘Mechanicville is a close-knit city. Many residents knew the family involved, have children and grandchildren of their own, or simply cannot comprehend the loss of six lives under such heartbreaking circumstances.’

‘Our thoughts remain with the family members, friends, neighbors, first responders and everyone affected by this tragedy.’

A resident in the apartment complex, Megan Reed, 38, told the Times Union that the grandmother lived in an apartment in the same building, and was ‘with [Myers] every single day to help her.’ 

She added: ‘Those kids don’t deserve this.’ 

Another neighbor told the outlet that the grandmother and mother were ‘inseparable’, and were ‘like best friends.’

Steadman’s Facebook profile shows that in 2022, she shared a GoFundMe for her daughter to ‘help get a domestic violence lawyer.’ 

The fundraiser, which has since been deleted, showed Myers with her children in matching outfits as they pleaded for support. ‘Please help my daughter and grandchildren,’ Steadman captioned her post at the time.

But the children’s father, Brady Harmon, denied the accusations in an interview with The US Sun, calling Myers the ‘culprit’ rather than a ‘victim.’ 

He alleged that she stabbed him in the face with a medicine dropper during a fight in 2019. Harmon also accused his ex-wife of keeping his children away from him to maintain a sense of ‘control.’ 

The devastated father also told how he and Myers married in 2015 but separated four years later, and that it was the last time he saw his children.

Still, he continued to speak with his children, most recently on June 7.

Days later, on June 10, he said he received a text from Myers that they were sick. 

‘She messaged me, “Hey, the kids are sick, we’ll talk to you on the 11th,” he said. 

That same day, Harmon said his lawyer sent her paperwork regarding an upcoming custody hearing on the 29th. 

‘So, I don’t know if that pushed them over the edge because like, “Oh my gosh, he actually has a lawyer that’s going to do his job. And we don’t know a way out of this, so let’s do the next best thing. He’ll never have access to these kids…” and then do what they did,’ he speculated. 

After he learned his children were sick, Harmon said he called police multiple times to ask for welfare checks.  

The grieving father has since suggested during an interview with Spectrum News that Myers and Steadman may have committed the crime together. 

‘And all because they were going to spend 60 days with me. Sixty days in six and a half years. I finally get 60 days, and I get this thrown in my face,’ he added, referring to the upcoming Utah trip. 

‘I have been fighting for so long to be able to have access to them, fighting so long to be part of their lives and show them there’s something different,’ he continued. 

‘Almost to that finish line, have my legs cut out from me and gutted because someone decided to take my kids away from me.’ 

The grim discovery of their deaths  came just two days before Father’s Day, Harmon noted to ABC affiliate News 10.

‘No mother, no sane mother, parent or anything would sit there and allow that to happen,’ he said. 

‘Who could do that to a child, especially your own child or grandchild? It is so sickening to think that they did that.’ 

Harmon added that he consistently spoke to his children on FaceTime and tried to get them excited about their upcoming summer visit to Utah. 

He described his children to the New York Post as ‘happy little kids,’ adding ‘Harper and Grace would show me their drawings, Hudson would show me their cat and Gavin would show me something he built.’

Harmon went on to share that Steadman had lived with him and Myers at one point during their marriage.

He described the grandmother as not being warm, but admitted that she was ‘doting’ and would spoil the children. 

Meanwhile, Steadman’s ex-husband, John Bauman, told Spectrum News that she and her daughter loved the kids, adding that he did not believe they had anything to do with their deaths.