Authorities are still investigating the death of a 2-month-old baby who was left unattended for hours in a hot car. The newborn, Diana Sofia De Los Santos, was found unresponsive in an SUV outside the home of her adoptive parents at 12:20 a.m. on June 13, 2024, in Santee, San Diego.
A family member found Diana, who had apparently been left in the car for several hours. The family member called 911 and Diana was rushed to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
The couple was already raising a 2-year-old son.
Diana had been adopted as a newborn by Romer and Jayson De Los Santos, according to the Daily Mail. The couple took her home on April 11, after traveling to Arizona to meet her in the hospital.
The couple, who were already fathers to a 2-year-old boy, began their quest to become second-time parents in November 2023, The Publica reported.
The couple shared this statement on their profile for an adoption website: “Our hearts and home are open to providing more love to another amazing child. We want our children to grow up full of memories of playing on the beach, building sandcastles, making friends, biking to the park, going on Hawaiian cruises and learning how to raise foster kittens.”
Some question the speed of the adoption process.
There has been some concern at the speed with which the couple were able to adopt the child, given most adoption processes can take up to a year or more, with newborns being in particularly high demand.
In the profile, Romer and Jayson promised the birth parents that the would be able to visit the child and see as many photos as they wanted, the Daily Mail reported.
“We admire the courage it takes for you to search for just the right family for the new life you are carrying,” their profile read. “We recognize that it is not a decision to be taken lightly and understand that love is the source of your selfless act. We believe we’re not only adopting a child, but also opening our hearts to a whole new family.”
‘They seem like a nice family,’ one neighbor said of the couple.
Romer, a senior consultant at Jama Software, and Jayson, a stay-at-home dad since the adoption of their son, have been together for more than 20 years. The two married in 2008, during the few months when same-sex marriage was legal in California. It was later banned again by Proposition 8 until it became legal nationwide in 2013.
Romer is active on the gay rights scene, having served as the former cochair of San Diego LGBT Pride. During his tenure, he wrote that he “doubled the size of the Board of Directors within a year and improved its diversity in age, race, gender, and gender identity,” The Publica reports.
A neighbor told the Daily Mail that the two seemed like good parents. “They seem like a nice family who wanted to give a couple of kids a good life, it’s just a shame it didn’t turn out that way,” they said.
The investigation into Diana’s death continues.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Office claims that Diana had been left outside in 63F weather. While the temperature may have seemed mild, temperatures inside the car may have reached as high as 115F or higher.
The body’s organs begin to shut down when body temperature reaches 107F. Children are particularly vulnerable to high temperatures because their bodies overheat 3 to 5 times faster than adults’.
Right now, it’s unclear how Diana was left in the car and by whom. No charges have been filed against Romer of Jayson in her death and the investigation is ongoing.