Texas mother left children in hot car to teach them 'lesson,' police say

PARKER COUNTY, Texas — A woman from Parker County, Texas, who previously claimed the deaths of her two young children in a hot car in May as an accident, admitted that she left them in the vehicle to teach them “a lesson,” police said.

Cynthia Marie Randolph, 25, told "several variations of the events" during police interviews, and later said she broke the car window to make it look like an accident according to WFAA.

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What really happened on May 26, police said, is that Randolph’s 2-year-old daughter refused to get out of the car. The mother responded by shutting the door to teach her “a lesson,” assuming “she could get herself and her brother out of the car when ready.”

Randolph proceeded to go inside the house where she smoked marijuana then fell asleep for two or three hours.

Randolph initially told authorities she was folding laundry and watching TV and realized within an hour that her kids were "gone." She said they took off. She found them in the car, where they had locked themselves inside. She broke the car window in an attempt to save them, according to CBS Dallas-Fort Worth.

Randolph is being held without bail.

Cox Media Group