Mom Charged In Baby's Car Death

(AP)  A woman who found her 17-month-old son dead in her hot, stuffy car after she worked her seven-hour shift as a Hooters waitress has been arrested, police said.

Ashly Duchene, 22, was booked into Maricopa County jail on a felony count of negligent homicide.

People close to Duchene told investigators that she made statements over the past few weeks that she thought parental responsibilities encroached on her freedom.

"Caring for a child was not a top priority. It may or may not have played a role (in her son's death)," police Sgt. Joel Tranter said.

Duchene usually dropped Ryan Gallagher off at a day-care center on her way to work, but for unknown reasons failed to do so Tuesday, Tranter said.

Instead, she left her son in the car when she arrived at the north Phoenix Hooters restaurant where she works at about 10 a.m. Tuesday, police said. The child was dead when she returned after her shift at nearly 5 p.m.

Authorities said Duchene was hysterical and immediately summoned help.

Efforts to revive the boy by witnesses, officers and firefighters were unsuccessful. Temperatures hit nearly 90 degrees Tuesday, but it would have been more than 100 degrees inside the car, Tranter said.

Officials believe the boy, who was in a car seat, was invisible to people going in and out of the restaurant and a nearby car wash because the car has tinted windows.

Duchene told police she walked to her car, unlocked the driver's door, sat in the vehicle and immediately realized she had forgotten Ryan in the back seat.

Duchene said the boy had recently spent a few weeks out of town with his grandfather and that she had gotten out of the habit of dropping him off before work, according to a probable cause statement released by the court Wednesday.

One factor that led to the negligence charge was that Duchene said she remembered glancing at her son in the rearview mirror on her way to work that same day, and that Ryan "was smiling at her and happy," the court document said.

The document said Duchene told investigators that she also forgot Ryan was in her car the day before he died, but remembered him when she arrived at work.

Later that same day, Duchene complained to the boy's father, Clayton Gallagher, that she "couldn't do it anymore" and that all Ryan did was cry. When Gallagher offered to take Ryan, Duchene declined, saying she needed to see her son every day.

The document also said Duchene had once attempted suicide.

The restaurant where Duchene works was closed Wednesday and was holding counseling sessions for employees.