Man Charged with Murder for Leaving Toddler in Hot Car

0:00It's April 23rd, I'm Corey with the story. This is Kansas News Today, driven by AI. Prosecutors in Johnson County, Kansas, just hit a 43-year-old overland parkman named Tyler Pence with first-degree murder charges for, leaving his three-year-old child in a scorching hot car last fall. It happened back on September 3rd, 2025, and tragically, that little one didn't make it. On 5.30 p.m. that day, deputies rolled up to Kansas Highway 10 near DeSoto on a medical call and found Pence with two young kids trapped inside the vehicle on a brutally hot afternoon. First responders tried everything to save them, but the three-year-old was pronounced dead right there at the scene, while the one-year-old got rushed to the hospital with serious injuries but pulled through and recovered fully. Investigators pieced it together quick, sending the report straight to the District Attorney's Office, who filed not just a murder charge, but also felony child endangerment earlier this month.

1:00Pence got arrested on Wednesday, April 22nd, booked into the county jail on a $250,000 bond, and he stayed locked up. Through his first court appearance the next day, with the case moving forward from here.