Wednesday, July 28, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.
Christian Olsen, the 3-year-old boy whose mother left him inside a hot minivan for 30 minutes to an hour in Henderson on Sunday afternoon, died Monday.
The boy's father, Bill Olsen, said the toddler suffered heatstroke. Employees at the Clark County coroner's office said this morning that Christian's official cause of death has not yet been determined.
Olsen said his wife forgot Christian was in the minivan after they returned to a friend's home where she was practicing a song for a funeral.
"She just forgot," the father said.
Henderson police were still investigating the incident Tuesday and are expected to soon turn the case over to the district attorney. The district attorney will decide whether Christian's mother will face any criminal charges. In a previous death in which a father left his son in a hot van for hours, that father was not charged because, District Attorney David Roger said, the neglect was unintentional.
In Christian's case, the boy had been with his three siblings and his mother, 39-year-old Diana Olsen, at a get-together following a sleep-over birthday party, which had taken place at a home in the 1400 block of La Brea Road the night before, Bill Olsen said. Diana Olsen left to run some errands and took Christian with her.
"My wife planned to leave all four children at the house to play with their friends, but Christian saw her leaving and wanted to come with her," Bill Olsen said. "She didn't want him to come at first, but he really wanted to go with her, so she let him."
Diana Olsen ran her errands, making a quick stop at her own house, taking her son inside the family home to get a snack, Bill Olsen said.
"Then she put Christian back into the car and drove back to our friend's house," he said. "When she got to the house, she just didn't think about getting him out. She just forgot."
Olsen said his wife joined the other parents inside the house to practice a song they planned to sing at an upcoming funeral.
About 40 minutes to 1 hour into the practice, Diana Olsen went to check on her four children, whom she believed were all playing outside with their friends, her husband said.
"She got out there and asked, 'Where's Christian?' and then realized he was still in the car," he said. "She ran to the car and unlocked it. He was still alive, but had heatstroke."
The outside temperature at the time was 107 degrees.
The boy was rushed into the house, where he was covered with a moist blanket and fed small amounts of water, before being transported by ambulance to Sunrise Hospital.
He was pronounced dead at 3:33 p.m. Monday, about 24 hours after he had been pulled from the van.
Diana Olsen told her husband "she didn't know what she was thinking" when she left her son in the van.
"She is racked with guilt right now, thinking what if she had done things different," Bill Olsen said during a telephone interview, explaining that the audible cries in the background were coming from his wife.
The boy's father said it is assumed that Christian fell asleep during the car ride back to the house on La Brea Road, a residential neighborhood just northwest of the Galleria at Sunset mall.
"He didn't make any noise when my wife stopped the car, and he typically does," Bill Olsen said. "Usually when we stop the car, he screams, 'Let's get out,' but he didn't this time. He was quiet."
Henderson Police Officer Shane Lewis said the police investigation is also looking at why and how the toddler was left in the car. Officer Todd Rasmussen said police will turn over their information to the district attorney next week.
District Attorney Roger said he can't say whether any charges will be filed until he reviews the case.
Roger said a key in such cases is whether the child was "willfully placed in harm's way."
"The case law makes it very clear that there has to be willful conduct," he said. "The person has to intentionally place a child in harm's way."
For example, Roger said that in the case last year involving David Fish, the high school teacher who forgot his sleeping child in the back of a van, there was no evidence that it was an intentional act, and so no charges were brought against him.
"We don't know what the facts of this case will reveal," he said. "But if there is evidence that a person intentionally left a child in the car, then they'll be prosecuted."
Roger said someone charged with child abuse and neglect could face two to 20 years in prison.
Bill Olsen said Sunday's incident was "just a tragic, horrible accident" with no neglect involved.
"We're getting calls from people who saw on the news that my wife left Christian inside the car while she went into this birthday party, and that's not what happened at all," he said. "She didn't leave him in there intentionally. My wife is the most caring, loving mother you can ever imagine."
Olsen said his wife is usually "overly cautious" and "paranoid" when it comes to leaving her children inside the car, and takes extra precautions such as leaving her purse in the back seat so she won't forget the children are back there before she gets out.
"For whatever reason, she didn't do that Sunday," he said. "And now she is blaming herself and thinking she failed him (Christian)."
Jody Esposito, vice president of the Nevada chapter of Kids and Cars, a safety group, said the mother has already been punished enough, but speculated that perhaps the death wouldn't have happened if a law was in place that fined parents who left their children alone in vehicles.
The organization is pushing for legislation, with the help of state Sen. Valerie Weiner, D-Las Vegas, that would levy a $300 fine against parents found guilty of leaving a child younger than 7 alone in a vehicle.
A similar bill was struck down during the 2003 Legislature.
"She's going to go through a lifetime of 'What if I didn't,' " Esposito said about Christian's mother. "But if we'd passed the law it wouldn't have happened."
Roger has said he believes the existing laws are adequate.
Christian would be the year's first death linked to being left in a hot vehicle.
Last year, two children died in Clark County after they were left in hot vehicles.
Nationwide, 154 children died in hot cars last year, compared with 72 so far this year, Esposito said.
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