A 36 year old Nigerian woman living in Texas, Gbemisola Akayinode, has been arrested and charged with felony murder after her 9 year old daughter, Oluwasikemi, died of hyperthermia inside a locked vehicle on a dangerously hot day. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed her arrest on Thursday, stating that the county’s Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the child’s death a homicide.
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), said Akayinode was detained by the Harris County Homicide Detectives in collaboration with the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT). The heartbreaking incident reportedly occurred on July 1, when police were called to an industrial complex on Mayo Shell Road in Galena Park, near Houston. The young girl was discovered lifeless inside the car and later pronounced dead at LBJ Hospital.
According to court documents obtained by ABC News, Gbemisola allegedly left her daughter in the car around 5:45 a.m while she went to work. The child was left with food, a rechargeable fan, ice cubes, and water. The mother also reportedly gave her melatonin to help her sleep and rolled down the back windows halfway before leaving. When she returned around 1:53 p.m, she found her daughter unresponsive and blue, screaming desperately for help.
Investigations later revealed that Gbemisola had taken her daughter to work on several occasions, claiming she couldn’t afford day care until her next paycheck. However, detectives discovered that her foreman had already been paying for day care on her behalf.
As reported by KHOU11, Akayinode initially tried to blame her daughter’s death on ADHD medication but eventually admitted to giving melatonin twice, the night before and again that morning. Sheriff Gonzalez also disclosed that a front window shade had been placed on the vehicle, making it hard for anyone outside to notice the child trapped inside.
Emergency responders attempted CPR before rushing Oluwasikemi to the Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, where doctors confirmed she was dead on arrival. The medical examiner later ruled her death as homicide caused by hyperthermia.
Tragically, this was one of four child deaths linked to hot car incidents in Texas within just the first two weeks of July. In other heartbreaking cases, two children died after sneaking into a car while their mother slept, and another baby lost their life after being intentionally left in a parked vehicle.
