A Monroe grandmother is facing a child abuse charge after deputies say she left her 8-month-old granddaughter alone inside a vehicle on a 96-degree day while she went inside an animal shelter to ask about adopting kittens. Dedra McManus was arrested by animal services deputies and issued no bond following the incident, according to an arrest notification.
According to the Union County Sheriff's Office, McManus parked her vehicle between two fully marked sheriff's office vehicles at the Union County Animal Services building on Presson Road before going inside. Deputies reviewed video footage that showed McManus visiting the shelter and looking at kittens available for adoption, a leftover offering from an August Clear the Shelter event. She reportedly asked staff about receiving free kittens, but animal services declined her request.
The infant remained alone in the vehicle for approximately 10 minutes while McManus was inside, the sheriff's office notification states. At one point, McManus returned to the animal services building carrying the infant before running back out to her vehicle, and she reportedly dropped her Apple Watch in the process. She also turned off the vehicle's engine at some point during the incident, per the notification.
EMS Evaluates Infant, DSS Steps In
EMS personnel evaluated the infant, who appeared to be okay, according to the arrest notification. Animal services deputies arrested McManus and transported her to the detention center, where she was charged with child abuse and held without bond. The Department of Social Services took custody of the infant following the arrest, a step consistent with how North Carolina child welfare guidelines classify leaving a child unattended in a vehicle as potential neglectful supervision, authorizing local DSS agencies to initiate emergency evaluations and assume protective custody, per LegalFix.
McManus remained in custody at the time of publication. North Carolina does not have a standalone hot-car statute, so cases like this are typically prosecuted under N.C.G.S. § 14-318.2, the state's misdemeanor child abuse law, which covers knowingly creating or allowing a substantial risk of physical injury to a child under 16. A conviction under that statute carries up to 150 days in jail as a Class A1 misdemeanor, according to the Coolidge Law Firm.
How Fast a Parked Car Turns Deadly
The danger tied to even brief exposure comes down to basic physics. Testing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows a parked vehicle's interior temperature can climb 20 degrees Fahrenheit in as little as 10 minutes, with roughly 80% of that spike occurring during the initial 10-minute window, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of a St. Louis hot car case. On a 96-degree day like the one McManus and her granddaughter faced, that kind of rapid buildup pushes a closed cabin toward dangerous territory almost immediately.
Infants are especially vulnerable to that heat. NHTSA safety research indicates an infant's core body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult's, with pediatric heatstroke beginning once a child's core temperature hits 104 degrees Fahrenheit; body temperatures reaching 107 degrees are typically fatal. Common misconceptions about ventilation don't help much either — earlier Hoodline reporting on the St. Louis case noted that rolling down windows or parking in partial shade provides negligible relief against rapid cabin heat accumulation, since thermal testing shows enclosed and cracked-window cabins heat at nearly identical rates.
North Carolina's Standing Among Hot Car Deaths
The state has a troubling record on this issue. Public safety data from Safe Kids NC and the North Carolina Department of Insurance ranks North Carolina sixth in the nation for pediatric vehicular heatstroke fatalities, recording 50 child deaths in hot cars between 1998 and 2026. State agencies run public awareness campaigns such as Stop, Look, Lock to curb these incidents during summer months.
Nationally, NHTSA figures show pediatric vehicular heatstroke killed 39 children in 2024 and 31 children in 2025 across the country, contributing to more than 1,000 such deaths logged since 1998. Tracking compiled by the North Carolina Department of Insurance also shows that roughly 19% of pediatric vehicular heatstroke incidents occur when an adult intentionally leaves a child unattended, compared to 54% resulting from a child being unintentionally forgotten.
The arrest adds to a string of recent child welfare cases handled by Union County authorities. In August, Hoodline reported that a 27-year-old Monroe mother was charged with felony child abuse and involuntary manslaughter following a multi-month investigation into an infant's death, and in April, a Union County toddler tested positive for methamphetamine, leading to charges against the child's mother and her boyfriend.
