My “day job” is as a staff writer at MamásLatinas. There I cover all kinds of stories and one of the stories I’ve been writing about and following involves Justin Ross Harris of Georgia, a 33-year-old father who left his 22-month old son Cooper in a hot car for over 7 hours on Wednesday, June 18. The child died. When I first wrote about it I was going to say how bad I felt for the dad because surely it was a mistake, but something in my gut wouldn’t let me go there. Something was off and then I found out that Harris was arrested and charged with murder and child cruelty.
Well, Harris had said that he forgot to drop Cooper off at daycare, but then police found out that he and Cooper had breakfast that morning at a restaurant only a half a mile away from where Harris works. So you’re telling me that in the span of half a mile this dad forgot he had his son with him? Then it comes out that during his work day Harris went to his car to put stuff in his trunk (update: I was informed by someone else that it wasn’t his trunk he was putting stuff in, but the front seat…even worse) and still didn’t remember his son was there. But wait, there’s more and it gets really ugly.
It turns out that Harris had researched animals dying in overheated cars before the death of his son. I’m sorry, but WTF?!
Now, people, I find out that while that little boy was dying in the car Harris exchanged raunchy messages and nude pictures with six women. Apparently he was leading some kind of double life because he was having intimacy problems with his wife, Leanna Harris. And get this, Leanna also researched car deaths before Cooper’s death. But wait, there’s more and it’s even uglier.
Police also found that Justin Ross Harris had been frequenting websites that advocate child-free living. Yeah, it’s a little late for that buddy when you already have a kid.
Ugh, the more I learn about this case, the more my stomach hurts. I’ll wait to see what the court rules, but son of a gun if there isn’t something rotten going on here.
I don’t normally write about this kind of stuff here, but I can’t stop thinking about that poor little boy.
Have you been following this story?
Image via Cobb County Police
Just awful! We had a local baby left in the car while the mom went into Target to shop a week or so ago. Thankfully, a good samaritan called the place and the baby was ok. Ya know, I had to jump through all sorts of hoops and get references when I wanted to adopt my DOG, but any ding-dong can have a kid. I hope they throw the book at that guy.
Being in Florida with my dad recently he turns the news on often during the day. This story bothers me so much. When I heard that him and his wife both researched how long it takes to die in a car I was sick to my stomach. I didn’t know about the texting. I think people like him should be put to death the same way he killed his son!
I do my best to shake off bad news, but this one has really stuck with me. I find it so upsetting.
We have had cases of children dying in cars here in Austin, usually because one or other parent is not usually the driver and the child fell asleep so at first the story did not seem so unbelievable. Sad and tragic but it didn’t seem like murder. With the other information though, I am officially disgusted. In a world filled with people wanting children, how anyone could do this to a child I cannot understand. So terrible.
I also heard that he’d bought a $27,000 insurance policy on the boy. What a horrible person!
I am praying the mom is not involved. So heartbreaking.