Mom Went to Work at Ga. Car Dealership, Allegedly Leaving Baby to Die in Hot Car Parked Outside By Christina Coulter

A 7-month-old baby died after being left in a hot car outside a Georgia car dealership last month — and now, the child’s mother is charged with second-degree murder.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in a Nov. 5 news release that Nyla Simmons, 22, was arrested on Nov. 3 and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty to children after her infant was brought to a hospital in Albany and pronounced dead.

According to the agency, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office requested GBI assistance on Oct. 16 after deputies responded to the hospital regarding the child’s death. An online obituary identifies the child as Novanni Truvan Simmons, who was born in March of this year.

Deputies told GBI investigators the baby had been brought in from the Kia Automotive Dealership on Ledo Road in Albany, per the news release.

Simmons, who worked at that dealership, allegedly left the baby inside her vehicle before starting her shift there, according to Law & Crime, WALB and the Tampa Free Press. Temperatures in Albany reached about 88 degrees that day, the outlets reported, citing Weather Underground data.

Authorities have not publicly said how long the infant was in the car.

Lee County Coroner Hill Mackey told WALB the child’s body was sent for an autopsy on Friday, Oct. 17, and the official cause of death is still pending.

“People get upset because they think after the autopsy you should have an answer,” Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler told the outlet. “If there is not any trauma to the child or injuries to the child, then a lot of time, you got to wait on tox and the histology, all of that, to come in and see what happened.”

Investigators identified Simmons as a suspect through interviews and evidence collection, according to the GBI. She was arrested at the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and booked into the Lee County Jail, where she is being held without bond, according to jail records reviewed by PEOPLE.

The investigation remains active and ongoing, the GBI said. Once it is complete, the case file will be turned over to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.