Mother indicted for infant’s hot car death
October 16, 2018
More than a month has passed since an infant died inside a hot car parked outside a Zanesville apartment complex. The baby’s mother was arrested Friday.
The Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office served a warrant for 27 year-old Samantha Donohoe on Oct. 12
Donohoe faces several felony charges in the incident, including murder, involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and endangering children.
On the evening of Sept. 4, one of the hottest day of the year in Zanesville, Donohoe called police after finding her son unresponsive in the backseat of her car in the parking lot of Eagle View Apartments located off U.S. 40 near I-70.
A six-minute 911 call revealed a frantic Donohoe on the phone with dispatchers trying to revive her 57 day-old son alongside her husband, the baby’s father, Christopher Donohoe.
The dispatcher attempted to ask Samantha Donohoe if she was capable of performing CPR on the baby. It wasn’t until his sixth try that the near-hysteric Samantha Donohoe acknowledged his repeated question, allowing he Muskingum County dispatcher to connect a Community Ambulance dispatcher to the call.
“I need some help, how do you give a baby CPR? I think my baby is dead. Please help me,” Samantha Donohoe told dispatchers.
The Community Ambulance dispatcher provided instructions until first responders arrived on scene while Samantha Donohoe remained on the line and her husband performed CPR.
About five minutes into the call, deputies found the couple and took over CPR.
The father could be heard explaining to police that the baby was left in the car. Up until that point, it appeared that dispatchers had been under the impression that the scene was occurring indoors.
“Oh my god, please tell me he’s not dead, I already lost a baby last year,” Samantha Donohoe said.
Responders from Falls Township EMS arrived shortly after to take over rescue attempts but to no avail.
The baby was pronounced dead on the scene. An autopsy determined the cause as hyperthermia.
According to Muskingum County Prosecutor Mike Haddox, the mother had lost a daughter in 2017 when the infant was just 31 days old.
Haddox said Samantha Donohoe had fallen asleep on the couch with the baby, and when she woke, the baby had been suffocated to death.
That death was investigated and ruled accidental.
According to Haddox, Samantha Donohoe had custody of her two grade school age children at the time of the second baby’s death.
Samantha Donohoe faces between 15 years and life in prison if sentenced.
She is expected to be arraigned in court Wednesday morning.
Her husband, who was asleep in bed at the time the baby was left in the car, is not being prosecuted, according to Haddox.
A previous version of this story stated that Community Ambulance was the EMS that communicated with the mother and responded to the situation.
Shannon O'Berries • Oct 30, 2018 at 11:16 pm
Hope the prosecutor will take a second look at the first baby’s suspicious death in light of this second one. There’s no statute of limitations for murder.
Debbie • Oct 17, 2018 at 10:21 pm
This is intentional every summer time someone leaves their baby in the car and they die, Never in the fall, Spring or winter do you hear of this!
Connie Ford • Oct 16, 2018 at 6:06 pm
Kudos to the dispatch and all who responded to render aid. I’m so sorry your efforts failed. I applaud law enforcement and the prosecutor for bringing charges…now to make sure she is found guilty and gets the maximum sentence! To me it should be the death penalty! Leaving a defenseless child in a car is not an accident!
Linda Bolin Angelo • Oct 16, 2018 at 3:15 pm
Thank you Muskingum County Deputies. Thank you Prosecutor Mike Haddox. Thank you Community Ambulance and to all that tried to help.
There is something so horribly wrong with this case. Make those charges stick because you can see it’s going to happen again. Im against the Death Penalty , but every once in a while there is a case for the Death Penalty. this is Murder, call it what you want but she killed those babies. I strongly suspect the husband knows more than he is saying. Is it just a coincidence that the dad was asleep? Where was he when the other children died?
Jennifer • Oct 16, 2018 at 2:45 pm
Chris needs to be arrested for the exact same! The dude is half fruity and definitely has a hand in this- I can put money on it!!! IM OUTRAGED that everything has been put on Samantha- ARREST THAT OTHER SLIME BALL- HE IS FARRRRRR FROM INNOCENT & THATS A FACT!! DONT FAIL THESE BABIES AND DONT FAIL THEIR OTHER 2 LITTLE ONES!!!!!! OHIO PLEASE DO YOUR JOB!!!!!