Ethermac|'This can't be real': He left his daughter alone in a hot car for hours. She died.

"Babe our family. How could EthermacI do this. I killed our baby, this can't be real."

So wrote the father who police say left his daughter in a car last week near Tucson, Arizona, to die.

The temperature that afternoon was 111 degrees.

She was 2 years old.

This is where you want to stop reading. Please don’t, especially if you are a parent or a grandparent.

Marana police say Christopher Scholtes, 37, intentionally left his daughter in the car that afternoon and had done so before.

Dozens of children die in hot cars each year

Apparently, she was sleeping and he didn’t want wake her so he left her there in the car, with the air conditioner running.

More than three hours later, his wife arrived home and well, you know.

The Scholtes tot was the ninth child to die in a hot car this year, according to Kids and Car Safety. Since then, you can add four more.

Every year, dozens of children die after being left in sweltering cars.

Often, it’s a mother running errands or a father who forgot to drop off a child at day care on his way to work. Rarely, but sometimes, it’s a parent who just doesn’t much care.

My child died in a hot car.What his legacy has taught me about love and forgiveness.

Dad knew A/C in car would shut off in half hour

It’ll be up to the courts to decide how this child came to be left to die, strapped in her car seat as the temperature rose to unbearable and ultimately unsurvivable levels.

Scholtes told police that he returned home with the child about 2:30 p.m. on July 9. Neighborhood surveillance cameras, however, put his arrival at 12:53 p.m.

It was after 4 p.m. when the child was found, when the mother got home from work and asked about her youngest.

Here’s the stunner: Scholtes told police he knew the car would shut off after 30 minutes, according to released court documents.

Scholtes’ other children, ages 9 and 5, told Marana police that their father got distracted, busy as he was playing a video game and putting food away.

It wasn't the first time he left a child in the car

Apparently, it wasn’t the first time he left a child unattended in the car.

“I told you to stop leaving them in the car,” the child’s mother texted him as the child was being rushed to a hospital, where the toddler was pronounced dead. “How many times have I told you?”

Scholtes has been arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and child abuse. He could face decades in prison though I would imagine, if he's any sort of father, that he’s already living in hell.

"I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you," his wife texted.

"Babe I'm sorry,” he replied.

"We’ve lost her, she was perfect," she wrote.

Cities are only getting hotter:Our houses and asphalt made heat worse. Don't just complain about it. Stop it.

Lest you proclaim this could not happen to you ...

"Babe our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby. This can't be real."

I don’t envy the judge who must figure out where justice lies in a tragedy such as this.

Before you say it could never happen to you … well, perhaps the better thing to be thinking is this:

There but for the grace of God …

Laurie Roberts is a columnist for the Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or follow her on X (formerly Twitter): @LaurieRoberts.