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 bus that was associated with the Kid University daycare center in Cordova, Tennessee. The outlet spoke to the girl's uncle, Christopher Jones, who said Winter had nonverbal autism and "couldn't advocate for herself."
Memphis Police Department officers responded to the daycare at 3:23 p.m. and found the little girl in need of medical assistance, local NBC affiliate WMC reported. Winter was pronounced dead at the hospital.
WJTV spoke to Shabnam Manhas, who works near the school and said she heard someone screaming at the daycare center. When Manhas went to see what was happening, she saw a woman "on the ground just crying a lot, and we kept on trying to ask what happened, and she was just crying, and we tried to get her up. She just could not talk." According to WJTV, the crying woman was the driver of the bus where Winter was found. The bus driver was not identified by name.
Jones, whose brother is Winter's father, told WJTV that Winter regularly rode a bus from Kid University to Macon-Hall Elementary School, then returned to Kid University by bus after her school day was over. On Thursday, Jones said, "the ball was dropped and she never even made it into the school."
He said, "No one knew that she was still on the bus until they got back on the bus and got ready to go and pick up the students from school."
WMC reported that air temperature in the Memphis, Tennessee, area reached 97 degrees on Thursday. The internal temperature of the bus, with the windows and doors all closed, would have been dangerously high.
Winter's father, Bryan Jones, did not appear on camera but told WJTV that his daughter's internal temperature was 109 degrees when she was found. Christopher Jones, who told WJTV that he also had a 6-year-old child with nonverbal autism, said Winter "couldn't open her mouth and say, 'Hey, I'm still on the bus,' or anything, nothing like that."
No arrests have been made in connection with Winter's death. Police are still investigating.