1-Year-Old Forgotten in Daycare Van Dies: Cops

Van driver has been charged in little girl's death
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 23, 2023 2:06 AM CDT
Toddler Dies After Being Forgotten in Daycare Van: Cops
This photo released by the Omaha Police Department shows Ryan Williams, 63, of Omaha, Neb. Williams was charged Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023, with a felony count of child neglect resulting in the death of 1-year-old Ra'Miyah Worthington.   (Omaha Police Department via AP)

A 1-year-old Nebraska girl was picked up along with two of her siblings for daycare Monday, but never made it back home. Police say Ra'Miyah Worthington was left inside the van after it arrived at Kidz of the Future Child Development Center II in Omaha, and was found there in the afternoon with a body temperature of 109 degrees, KETV reports. CPR was performed, but the toddler died at a nearby hospital, WOWT reports. The driver, Ryan Williams, 62 was arrested on charges of child abuse by neglect resulting in death. He told authorities that as he was unloading the children, a boy who did not want to exit the van distracted him, and that after a staff member came to retrieve that boy, Williams closed the van door. He found Ra'Miyah when he returned to the van hours later to head out on his afternoon route.

"The daycare picks them up in the morning, early in the morning," Ra'Miyah's father said at a rally outside the daycare center Tuesday morning. "My thing is how can you forget a kid that you yourself put into the vehicle, but you took the other two off? How do you forget one when you take two off the van? How did you forget my baby?" Echoed the girl's mother, "My baby did not come home. Her siblings did. She didn't. How did y'all forget about her? Y'all picked all of 'em up, took 'em off the van. How did y'all forget my baby?" The state issued an emergency order to shut down the daycare, WOWT reports. A GoFundMe for the family has raised more than $25,000 so far. The weather was scorching across a huge swath of the US on the day Ra'Miyah died, and hit the upper 90s in Omaha, the AP reports. (More child dies in hot car stories.)

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