Infant dies after being left in car seat

Moorhead police are investigating the death of an infant left in a minivan on Tuesday.

Police spokesman Lt. Tory Jacobson says authorities found the girl unresponsive at her home, where she was pronounced dead.

Police identified the infant as 5-month-old Christiana Sandstrom. Jacobson said investigators are still working on the case, but that they have no reason to believe the death involved foul play.

The girl's father said that he'd taken the child in the van to drop her mother off at work, and later found the girl still in the van. The high temperature in Fargo yesterday hit 82 degrees.

"This is a tragic accident, clearly. As we can only imagine, the entirely family is in mourning, with the loss of their sister, their child," Jacobson said. "His baby had been forgotten inside his vehicle with the windows up for an extended period of time. As we know, with the windows up it acts as an insulator, draws in the heat and certainly is life threatening."

An average of 38 children a year die of heat stroke in cars across the United States, according to the Kansas City-based advocacy group Kids and Cars says. Seven children died of heat stroke in cars in May.