6-Year-Old Girl Dies After Being Left in Hot Daycare Van, Family Says
Family says the 6-year-old was left in a daycare van for hours, and Tennessee officials say the state has seen 19 hot-car deaths this year.
- On Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, 6-year-old Winter Jones died after being left inside a daycare van at Kid University in Cordova. Memphis Police Department officers discovered her unresponsive shortly after 3 p.m.
- Family members say Winter, a special-needs student who was non-verbally autistic, remained on the bus after it returned to the daycare. Her uncle, Christopher Jones, noted she could not alert anyone to her presence.
- Temperatures reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index of 103 on Thursday. According to the nonprofit Kids and Car Safety, Winter's death marks the 19th nationwide this year and the third in Tennessee.
- Multiple agencies, including the Tennessee Department of Human Services, are investigating the death. Kid University's website was suspended Friday as Christopher Jones urged families, "Don't get comfortable" about child safety.
- Tennessee law requires daycares to perform bus checks and maintain daily logs of those checks. State officials also offer the "Baby in the Back" initiative, a free program providing car hangtags to encourage caregivers to check vehicles.
20 Articles
20 Articles
Numerous rule violations led to death of 6-year-old girl left on bus, state inspection shows
A state inspection shows that a series of failures by the staff at Kid University directly contributed to the death of 6-year-old Winter Jones, who was left on a bus for hours on a day when the temperature reached 99 degrees.
Six-year-old dead after being left in hot daycare bus for hours
CORDOVA, Tenn. (CBS, KYMA) - A six-year-old girl died Thursday after being left alone on a daycare bus for hours in extreme heat. Her family said the girl boarded the bus Thursday morning, but never went inside the daycare after arriving. She was later found inside unresponsive inside the bus and couldn't be saved. Now family members are speaking out about the tragedy. "No windows down, no door even cracked open, no type of ventilation. I just I…
The girl had nonverbal autism and, according to her family, she could not ask for help to warn that she remained in the vehicle.
6-year-old girl with autism died in a hot bus at daycare parking lot after driver forgot to check for her: Family
News footage of a school bus at the Kid University daycare in Cordova, Tenn. (WJTV). Tennessee police are investigating a daycare center after a 6-year-old girl died in the back of one of the center’s buses. Local CW Network affiliate WJTV reported that 6-year-old Winter Jones died on Thursday after being left on a hot...
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