The family of three-year-old Ke’Torrius "K.J." Starkes Jr. is mourning the loss of their “vibrant” little boy, describing him as an intelligent, cheerful child who brought light to every room. Tragically, K.J. lost his life after being left inside an extremely hot vehicle for several hours while under the supervision of a childcare worker contracted by Alabama’s Department of Human Resources (DHR).

According to CNN, the incident occurred last Tuesday in Birmingham when the DHR-contracted worker failed to notice K.J. remained strapped in his car seat after completing a scheduled supervised visit with the boy’s father. The visit, which ended around 11:30 a.m., was part of a court-ordered reunification process for K.J.’s parents. Instead of returning the toddler directly to daycare as required, the worker reportedly ran personal errands with K.J. still in the vehicle before arriving home at 12:30 p.m. and exiting the car without him.

For over five hours, the child remained trapped in the parked car during peak afternoon heat, with temperatures reaching 96 degrees and heat indices soaring between 101-105 degrees. The worker only realized her fatal mistake when daycare staff called inquiring about K.J.’s whereabouts. Emergency services were immediately contacted, but medical personnel pronounced K.J. dead at 6:03 p.m.

The family’s attorney, Courtney French, expressed profound grief over the preventable tragedy. 

“It’s just hard to comprehend that you would leave a baby in a hot car and just have no recollection whatsoever that the baby, a 3-year-old child, is trapped in your car,” said Courtney French, the family’s attorney to CNN. “He died a brutal death.”

French added: “Rather than properly returning K.J. immediately to day care, the worker made numerous personal errands with K.J. buckled in a car seat in the back of her car.”