Trapped twins die in car
published November 11, 2006 12:15 am

FOREST CITY — Two-year-old twin girls were found dead Friday in their mother’s car, authorities said.
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The girls and their 4-year-old sister got into the four-door Honda Accord but could not get out, Rutherford County Sheriff’s Lt. Detective Billy Scoggins said.

The sister, who was unconscious, was in critical condition late Friday night at Mission Hospitals, investigators said.

The girls’ mother found the children in the car about 1:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Woodlands Townhomes near Forest City.

Scoggins said he was unsure whether the girls had locked themselves into the car, parked outside their townhouse.

Temperatures in the area reached into the high 70s, Scoggins said, though investigators have not determined a cause of death. The bodies were sent for autopsies. “We are still in the early stages of this investigation,” he said.

The State Bureau of Investigation was assisting. Agents on Friday night were still meticulously searching through the car. Authorities did not release the mother’s or the children’s names.

A caller to 911 reported the girls had been found unresponsive. The mother had taken her children out of the car when authorities arrived, Scoggins said.

The children had been seen playing in the car earlier in the day, he said. Scoggins said the car had not been running at the time.

The mother collapsed sometime after finding her daughters and was taken to a hospital. A relative identified her as Latrice Miller.

Dorothy Moore, who said she is the girls’ aunt, said Miller is a single mother who had worked a late shift Thursday at a restaurant.

Moore got to the town houses soon after police arrived. She said she understood from other family members at the town houses that Miller had been asleep before the girls were found.

Scoggins would not say where the mother had been. The Department of Social Services planned to interview her Friday night.

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Third sister dies after being trapped in car
published November 11, 2006 4:22 pm

FOREST CITY – A 4-year old girl who was trapped in her mother’s car Friday died at Mission Hospitals early this morning, authorities said.

The girl’s 2-year-old twin sisters, Asia and Bry’asia Shepard, were found dead at the scene by emergency responders.

A doctor said four-year-old An’niya Miller had the signs of heat stroke and was in critical condition when she was transported to the hospital Friday afternoon, Rutherford County Sheriff’s Lt. Billy Scoggins said.

Scoggins said preliminary autopsy results on the twins showed that they also died of heat-related causes.

Family members Friday said the mother of the girls, Ann Latrice Miller, 26, was sleeping when her children climbed into her car outside their home on Big Island Road near Forest City.

Scoggins said Miller called 911 around 1:30 p.m. after she found her children unresponsive in the passenger area of the Honda Accord.

Temperatures Friday reached into the high 70s. Scoggins was unsure how long the children had been trapped in the car.

No charges have yet been filed.

“We’re still in the process of putting together our findings,” Scoggins said. “We’re trying to look at the history of the entire family.”