Doctor Vacations With Husband After He Let Toddler Die in Hot Car

There’s no easy way to say this — a father convicted of first-degree mruder for the tragic death of his two-year-old daughter is currently vacationing in Hawaii.

Yes, really.

In July 2024, Christopher Scholtes left his daughter, Parker, inside a 2023 Honda Acura SUV under the blistering Arizona sun. Temperatures hit 109℉. Parker never made it out alive.

Authorities say Christopher, 37, was inside gaming on his PlayStation, knowing full well the vehicle’s A/C would shut off — something he admitted he'd learned from past experience. Surveillance later confirmed what no parent ever wants to see: the toddler sat trapped for over three hours in direct sunlight.

By the time Parker’s mom got home and found her, it was already too late. She tried CPR. She called 911. But her little girl’s body temp had already spiked to a fatal 108.9℉ — just shy of the outside heat.

Despite all this, Christopher was granted bail. Then, in a move that shocked prosecutors and enraged much of the public, a judge approved his request to leave Arizona… for a tropical escape to Maui with his wife, Erika Scholtes. Yes, the same Erika who begged him — in a haunting series of texts — to stop leaving their kids in the car.

“I told you to stop,” she wrote as their daughter was rushed to the hospital. “We’ve lost her, she was perfect.”

The couple's other two daughters, then 5 and 9, told investigators this wasn’t a one-time lapse. Their dad regularly left all three kids alone in the SUV.

And yet, the court said yes to a beach holiday.

Now awaiting trial in October — after rejecting a plea deal that could’ve lowered his charge to second-degree mruder — Christopher faces the possibility of a dexth sentence. For now, he walks free, toes in the sand, his child buried under it.

No matter how you frame it, this one stings.