Christopher Scholtes, 38, was found dead in a Phoenix home just after 5 a.m. Wednesday

Scholtes died the same day he was due to report to prison ahead of his sentencing, where he faced up to 30 years behind bars

He’d been convicted of second-degree murder of his daughter Parker, 2, who died in a hot car outside his home in Marana, AZ, on July 9, 2024 while he watched porn, played video games and drank beer inside

The toddler’s roasting body was found when her mother came home around 4 pm that day and wondered where she was

Panicked Scholtes told responding cops he’d left his daughter for only “30 to 45 minutes”, records showed he’d left his daughter for three hours, roasting in 109F temperature

Scholtes would not have been eligible for early release, serving out the full sentence imposed by the court

Christopher Scholtes, [bottom right], was found dead in a Phoenix home just after 5 a.m. Wednesday, the same day he was due to report to prison ahead of his sentencing, where he faced up to 30 years behind bars for the murder of his toddler Parker [top]

The Arizona man who admitted leaving his 2-year-old daughter to die in a sweltering car while he watched porn is dead, from apparent suicide.
Christopher Scholtes, 38, was found dead in a Phoenix home just after 5 a.m. Wednesday November 5, the same day he was due to report to prison ahead of his sentencing for murder.
Scholtes last month admitted his culpability in the death of his toddler. He faced decades behind bars.
Announcing the suicide, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said in a statement Wednesday, “Instead of coming in to take account for what has occurred here, we have been informed, and we have confirmed, that the father took his own life last night,”

Christopher Scholtes, [photo], 38, was facing between 20 and 30 years in prison ” took his own life” rather than face sentencing hours later on Wednesday

Confusion apparently ensued after he failed to appear for the hearing where he’d been directed to hand himself over to police. Courthouse officials apparently were unaware the convict they were expecting died hours earlier.
The father of three, who according to his eldest daughter, had a habit of leaving his kids in the car, pled guilty in October to one count of second-degree murder and one count of intentional/knowing child abuse under circumstances likely to cause death or serious physical injury, thereby avoiding a trial and potential life sentence..
He was expected to be officially sentenced to between 20 and 30 years this month. Scholtes would not have been eligible for early release, serving out the full sentence imposed by the court.
His death comes more than a year after his young daughter, Parker, was found dead in the driveway of their Marana home outside Tuscon on a scorching July afternoon.
Temperature at home in Marana outside, Tuscon, soared to 109 degrees Fahrenheit on July 9, 2024.

Scholtes pled guilty to the second-degree murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Parker [photo]. The toddler was left to die in a car on a sweltering Arizona driveway on July 9, 2024, while her father was inside their home watching porn and drinking beer

Scholtes claimed to have left the toddler in the car around 12:30 p.m. for 30 minutes with the air conditioning on because he didn’t want to wake her from a nap.
However, court records would reveal two-year-old Parker Scholtes was in the car for over three hours. Her father also admitted to knowing the car would shut off automatically, within a half-hour.
Scholtes was inside watching porn, playing video games and drinking beer while his daughter roasted to death.
That was something he apparently made a habit of doing — not just in one family, but in two.
His older daughters from a previous marriage told investigators he would leave them in the car when they were kids. The younger daughters with Parker’s mother, Erika, reported that their dad regularly left all three of them strapped in the car while he went inside.
Scholtes who was unemployed, only remembered to check on Parker and discovered the toddler’s roasting body when her anesthesiologist mother Erika Scholtes, came home around 4 p.m.that day and wondered where she was.

Panicked Scholtes [photo], told responding cops he’d left his daughter for only “30 to 45 minutes.” He’d left for three hours, roasting in the sweltering car without ventilation. He was inside watching porn, playing video games and drinking beer

Bodycam footage from responding police officer shows Scholtes break into a panic while insisting he’d left Parker outside for “no more than 30, 45 minutes.”
“She’s very hot right now. We’re going to do everything we can,” the officers told Scholtes in the footage.
Parker was declared dead within an hour of being rushed to the Banner University Medical Center, the same hospital where her mother worked.
Scholtes became belligerent and defensive after learning his daughter had died.
“So I’m being treated like a murderer?” he said in police bodycam footage when cops told him he couldn’t take a shower and they could no longer leave him alone.

The daughters said their dad sometimes would leave them in the car – confirmed in text exchanges with his wife, Erika, after the death of their daughter. “I told you to stop leaving them in the car,” the texted her husband. “How many times have I told you?” He responds, “Babe, I’m sorry”

The bereaved interviewed by police insisted that he’d never done something like this before. However, Scholtes’ own texts with his wife in the aftermath painted a different picture.
“I told you to stop leaving them in the car,” the mother texted him after the death. “How many times have I told you?”
“Babe, I’m sorry,” he responded. “Babe, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be real.”
Dr. Erika Scholtes was cross with her husband. However she later requested that he be allowed to come home after his arrest so the family could grieve together.

Scholtes, [right], pled guilty to second-degree murder last month, in the death of two-year-old Parker

Christopher Scholtes’ older daughter from a previous marriage told investigators he would leave them in the car when they were kids, similar to his younger daughters with Parker’s mother, Erika, reporting that their dad regularly left all three of them strapped in the car while he went inside.
One of the older daughters sued Christopher and Erika in October, alleging they caused her emotional distress and detailing incidents of being left in cars. Her dad she alleged, began leaving her locked in his car over a decade ago, and made a habit of doing it ever since.
“The first time he did it was with me when I was younger than 7,” the girl, now 17, said in an interview with a local station.
The teenage daughter’s biological mother gained custody from Scholtes but passed away in 2024.
Since her mother died last year she has been in the care of a guardian who filed the lawsuit on her behalf, accusing Christopher and Erika Scholtes of emotional distress, assault, battery, and fraud, demanding $50,000 in compensatory damages.
The Arizona Department of Child Safety [DCS], records show the daughter made nine complaints from June 2014 to December 2020. Although DCS investigated, they could not substantiate the claims.
The daughter whose guardian has now applied for conservatorship, is standing by her allegations. Her guardian revealed that the teenager was hoping “they would put [her father] in prison and lose the key.”