Autopsies released on two Cary toddlers found in hot car. Mother charged with murder.
Months after two toddlers died after being left in a hot car by their mother, autopsy reports reveal the exact cause of their deaths.
Amora Lou Milbourne, 3, and her sister, Trinity Michelle Milbourne, 2, died of hyperthermia, according to a report by Associate Chief Medical Examiner Craig Nelson.
Hyperthermia happens when the body reaches an abnormally high temperature in response to exposure to prolonged, hot weather.
Temperatures reached about 95 degrees on Aug. 27, the day the children were left unattended in the car for about six hours on while their mother, Launice Battle, 29, gambled at a sweepstakes parlor, the report stated.
Battle’s car, a Toyota Yaris with slightly tinted windows, was parked in a possibly shaded area behind the parlor, the report stated.
Battle found the girls unresponsive and drove them to Duke Raleigh Hospital on Wake Forest Road where “death was pronounced in the emergency department despite attempted resuscitation,” the medical examiner’s report stated.
A call to Raleigh police was made from the hospital just after 9:30 p.m.
Initial reports did not say how or when the girls died, or provide any additional information. Battle made her first court appearance on Aug. 29 after she was arrested at the hospital.
According to the report, both girls were “were pulseless and apneic,” or not breathing, when they arrived at the hospital.
Battle, a resident of Cary, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. If convicted, she faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Autopsy reports
Law enforcement indicated 30 to 45 minutes elapsed between Battle leaving the gambling parlor and arriving at the hospital, according to the autopsy reports.
Battle also reportedly told a caretaker that she had left the girls in the car for four hours while gambling.
The reports for Amora and Trinity show similar icauses of death, however. Amora, who was born five weeks premature and weighed 30 pounds, had serious medical conditions that had required nursing care on weekdays, the report read.
Her sister, Trinity, who weighed 27 pounds, did not have prior medical conditions.
The deaths were classified on the autopsy reports as accidental.
Past neglect reports
Battle was investigated for neglect of her children three times in the past three years before their deaths, The News & Observer reported.
The most recent case was a few months before the girls died, according to public records.
Records from the Wake County Department of Health and Human Services showed the family was investigated three times by Child Protective Services. Two of those times, the girls’ parents were accused of not taking a child to medical appointments or follow-ups.
The July case, the last one before the deaths, documented another accusation of neglect but the department determined “services not recommended.”
All three cases of neglect were closed by the department after it was found Battle was taking the child to medical appointments and the girl was gaining weight.
The department documented the family was getting 40 hours per week of home health services to help Battle in caring for Amora.
This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 12:41 PM with the headline "Autopsies released on two Cary toddlers found in hot car. Mother charged with murder.."