Liberty Parents Charged After Kids Left in 120-Degree Car During Probation Visit

A Liberty, Missouri couple is facing felony child endangerment charges after their two children, ages 4 and 9, were found lethargic and pale inside a black 2025 Chevrolet sedan outside a probation office, with police estimating the car's interior had climbed past 119 degrees while the children sat unattended. Jarrod Robertson and Samantha Harp told investigators they checked on the kids several times, but the case includes conflicting accounts.

According to the Kansas City Star, Liberty Police Department officers were called to the Missouri Department of Corrections probation and parole facility at 910 Kent Street around 3:15 p.m. last Monday. A third witness told police he saw the children in the car at 2:30 p.m. and left the building at 3:15 p.m. while the kids were still inside, and that same witness said he never saw Robertson or Harp step outside to check on them while he waited in the lobby. Fire department personnel ultimately removed the two children from the vehicle, both of whom appeared lethargic and pale, their hair wet with sweat.

Robertson told officers he and Harp were at the office for an appointment with Harp's probation officer and that he initially stayed in the car before going in and out to check on things, per the probable cause affidavit cited by the Star. He claimed he was away from the vehicle for a total of 15 minutes. Harp told officers she and Robertson came out to check on the children and said one child had simply been asleep. But Harp's probation officer refuted that account in a probable cause statement, saying the couple was away from the children for an extended period and never mentioned kids were waiting in the car at all.

Surveillance Footage Versus the Couple's Timeline

The discrepancy between the parents' version of events and other statements in the case became central almost immediately. Robertson and Harp were allegedly away from the car for at least 25 minutes during Harp's meeting. Harp reportedly told officers at one point that police needed to review the video footage themselves. Notably, the car occasionally shuts off when it idles for too long, according to the Star's reporting, though it was confirmed not to be running when fire crews arrived.

Liberty temperatures hovered around 91 degrees at roughly 3 p.m. that day, per the Star. Using an online thermal calculator with the day's specific environmental variables, Liberty police officers estimated the sedan's interior reached 119.8 degrees, according to the same 4 States report, a figure that aligns with the over-119-degree estimate cited in the court document referenced by the Star. That kind of rapid heat buildup is consistent with research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has found a closed vehicle's interior temperature can climb 20 degrees within just 10 minutes, and that a child's body heats up three to five times faster than an adult's. NHTSA notes that cracking a window or parking in shade does not meaningfully slow the process.

Charges Filed

The Clay County Prosecutor's Office filed the first-degree child endangerment charges against both defendants, per the 4 States report. Robertson faces two counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, including a second or subsequent offense charge per court documents, while Harp faces two counts as well, with hers listed as a first offense. Under Missouri Revised Statutes § 568.045, first-degree endangerment involving a knowing, substantial risk to a child's life is a Class D felony carrying up to seven years in prison, with the charge escalating to a Class C felony and three to 10 years if physical injury occurs or the offense is a repeat one.

Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson said children should never be left unattended in a vehicle regardless of the weather or how much time has passed, according to the Star's report. Both Robertson and Harp are being held at the Clay County Detention Center on $75,000 bonds each. Robertson is scheduled for a bond reduction hearing on Thursday, while Harp's bond reduction hearing is set for Friday.

A Pattern Playing Out Across Missouri

The Liberty case follows a similar arrest just two days earlier, when St. Louis police took two parents into custody after a 6-month-old infant was found unresponsive and covered in sweat inside a non-running car during 90-plus-degree heat, as Hoodline previously reported. That same coverage noted that Missouri law, under § 537.555, shields Good Samaritans and first responders from civil liability when they forcibly break into a locked vehicle to rescue a minor believed to be in imminent danger, provided the rescuer holds a good-faith belief no other reasonable option exists.

Data from Kids and Car Safety shows that about 15 percent of U.S. pediatric vehicular heatstroke deaths involved children knowingly left by adults, 54 percent resulted from caregiver memory lapses and 25 percent involved children who entered vehicles on their own. Kids and Car Safety counted at least 18 children who died of vehicular heatstroke nationwide through mid-August of this year, following 39 deaths in 2024 and 29 in 2023. More than 1,000 child heatstroke deaths had been logged in vehicles in the United States since 1998. The article also mentions safety alert systems in new passenger vehicles.