Man who pleaded guilty in daughter’s Marana hot car death found dead in Phoenix

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — An Arizona man at the center of a high-profile case for his young daughter’s hot car death last summer was found dead in Phoenix on Wednesday after taking his own life, authorities confirmed.

Christopher Ryan Scholtes, 38, was found dead around 5 a.m. in a home near 7th Street and Northern Avenue. Phoenix police are investigating his death as a suicide.

Scholtes, who was accused of leaving his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car outside a Marana home last year, accepted a deal last month where he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and child abuse.

Scholtes was supposed to turn himself in on Wednesday morning ahead of his sentencing scheduled for Nov. 21.

“We expected to be in court this morning because the father had accepted a plea agreement to second-degree murder which could have carried as much as 30 years in prison,” Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said in a statement. “But instead of coming in to take account for what has occurred here, we have been informed and we have confirmed that the father took his own life last night.”

On July 9, 2024, Marana police and firefighters responded to a home near Paseo Rancho Acero and Paytons Court and found the toddler unresponsive in the backseat of a car. She was pronounced dead a short time later.

Summer temperatures peaked around 109 degrees that day, and an autopsy report showed that the child had a body temperature of 108.9 degrees.

Scholtes reportedly told police at the time that he left his daughter in the car with the air conditioning running while he went inside. However, security video showed that his daughter was left in the car for roughly three hours until his wife came home.

Body-camera video showed the scene aftermath, with Scholtes pacing around the home telling authorities that it was “his worst nightmare.”

Scholtes’ other two children, ages 5 and 9, said their father had left all three of them in the car regularly and that “he got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away” when their sister was in the car.

The father also faced scrutiny when he was permitted to take a vacation to Maui with his wife and two daughters, just under a year after his daughter died.

“This is obviously extraordinarily complicated and we extend our deepest sympathies and sorrow to all the loved ones who have suffered the loss of this beautiful baby girl and now another loss to his family,” Conover said. “This little girl’s voice was nearly silenced because justice was not served appropriately this morning. But it has not and will not be silenced due to the hard work of the people who work here at the Pima County Attorney’s Office.”

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