LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — Update, 10:45 a.m. (Oct. 6): The Lancaster County Coroner's Office has identified the victim as 3-month-old Jeannie Rose Golden.
The autopsy determined she died due to asphyxia due to hypothermia, according to Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, who ruled the manner of death a homicide.
PREVIOUSLY
A Lancaster County woman has been charged with third-degree homicide following the death of her three-month-old child, who was left unattended in a parked vehicle Wednesday afternoon in West Hempfield Township, authorities claim.
Emily Rose Weaver, 32, was charged Wednesday night following an investigation of her child's death, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office. In addition to homicide, Weaver is charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, according the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office.
Weaver was found unresponsive in the second-floor bedroom of a home on the 4300 block of Fairview Road Wednesday afternoon by witnesses who came to check on her after she did not pick up her other children from school, West Hempfield Township Police said in a criminal complaint affidavit.
The witnesses were aware of Weaver's history of drug addiction and were concerned for her well-being, they later told police.
When Weaver was awakened, she could not find her three-month old daughter, the witnesses later told police. One of the witnesses went outside and found the girl inside Weaver's vehicle.
The child was already beyond help, according to police.
All of the vehicle's doors and windows were closed, police said. The car was parked in direct sunlight, with Wednesday's high temperatures exceeding 80 degrees, according to police.
The Lancaster County Coroner's Office responded to the scene and pronounced the child dead at 7:08 p.m. The preliminary indication is that the child died of environmental exposure, according to the district attorney's office.
Weaver was taken into custody at the conclusion of a preliminary investigation by West Hempfield Township Police, the Lancaster County Detective Bureau, and the Lancaster County Coroner's Office, prosecutors said.
Fairview Avenue was closed for nearly eight hours while authorities conducted their investigation on Wednesday, the district attorney's office said.
When questioned by police, Weaver allegedly admitted to using methamphetamine twice between Sunday and Wednesday. She said she intended to use the drug again on Wednesday after dropping her other two children at school, but "(did) not remember" doing so, according to the complaint.
Weaver told police she did not remember anything that occurred between the time when she arrived home that morning and when she was awakened by one of the witnesses who came to check on her, the complaint states.
Weaver has an extensive criminal record, court documents show. She was charged with endangering the welfare of a child by Millersville Boro Police in 2018, pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor drug offenses and a summary traffic violation in 2019, and was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and endangering the welfare of a child in 2018.
Weaver relinquished parental rights toward her other two children in 2021, according to investigators.
The homicide investigation is continuing, and the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office said it is continuing to assist the West Hempfield Township Police Department.
