Mother indicted for infant’s hot car death

By Christine Holmes, News Director

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.