HANAHAN, S.C. (AP) — Sametta Heyward was in a bind. The single mother was scheduled to start a double shift at 3 p.m. and her baby sitter had just canceled.
“She was either told to come to work or be fired or she was afraid to call in sick — one of those things,” police Lt. Michael Fowler said.
Miss Heyward made it to her job at a county-run group home July 29, a typical warm summer day. After eight hours, she called a supervisor and said she had to leave because of child-care issues.
According to her employer, she didn’t tell the supervisor or a co-worker that she left her 1-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son in her Chevy Cavalier hatchback, parked on a residential street.
Miss Heyward left Triniti and Shawn with battery-powered fans, food and drinks, but it was not enough to combat the sweltering conditions inside the vehicle. She later told relatives that when she got to the car at 11:30 p.m., the children were unconscious with weak pulses.
A day later, police found her at her apartment wailing, “Oh, my babies.”
Officers said in a police report that she tried to kick and bite them and asked them to kill her. The bodies of the children, bathed and dressed, were found wrapped in trash bags and stuffed under the sink.
Miss Heyward, 27, is charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse. A funeral for the children was held yesterday .
Lab tests are pending that could help determine whether the children died in the stifling car or sometime after their mother rushed their limp bodies back to their tiny apartment.
A host of other questions remain unanswered: Why didn’t she take the children inside the group home? Did she ever check on them? Why didn’t she tell her supervisor that the baby sitter canceled? If the children were alive when she got to them, why didn’t she seek medical help?
People who know Miss Heyward say they considered her a loving mother.
“She and her kids were always happy, smiling and joking,” said Tony Smith, who lived nearby and often shared meals with the family.
Mr. Smith’s wife, Sheryce Robertson, sometimes baby-sat, but she was sick when Miss Heyward asked her to care for the children that Sunday.
It was an average summer day by South Carolina standards: 88 degrees. But the inside of the car would have been like an oven, according to specialists, who say the children may not have had much of a chance, even if the windows were cracked.
“If it’s in direct sunlight, you can easily get temperatures of 130 or 140 degrees in a car in 10 or 15 minutes,” said Dr. Keith Borg, an emergency room physician at the Medical University of South Carolina. “At that kind of temperature it could kill an infant or a small child in minutes.”
Miss Heyward’s friends and her bosses — and even the officers who arrested her — said she was trying her best, working long hours to provide for her children.
Miss Heyward’s lawyer, Andy Savage, said he hopes a mental evaluation will shed light on what happened.
“Neighbors see her as a great mother. This isn’t a woman who beat her kids,” he said. “Suppose she went to work that night and left them at home. Would that have been better?”
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