LAKEWOOD, N.J. – Moshe Ehrlich told police he had long feared forgetting and leaving one of his six children in the car before precisely that happened in March, resulting in the death of his 4-month-old son in the family minivan, according to a court record.
Ehrlich, 35, told investigators he had acquired several methods to remind him that the baby was in the car. One such method included placing his hat on the front passenger seat while he was driving as a reminder. On March 18, doing so made no difference, he said, according to the affidavit.
Details about the circumstances surrounding the baby’s last hours were outlined in an affidavit of probable cause that led to Ehrlich’s arrest on a charge of child endangerment two days later on March 20. A student at a local religious school, Ehrlich described a disrupted and hurried morning before he went to his yeshiva to begin his studies.
The child, whose name was redacted in the charging documents requested by the Asbury Park Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, under the state’s Open Public Records Act, had been left in the car for about 2½-hours while Ehrlich was in the Jewish school.
The baby was the first child to die in a hot car in 2025, according to data collected by Kids and Car Safety, which tracks such deaths and advocates for preventative measures. Dozens of children tragically perish each year in cars that quickly heat up when left in the hot sun, even if the temperatures don’t feel hot out. Many of the children are left by parents unknowingly, according to the organization.
The temperature inside the Ehrlich family’s car was recorded at 96.2 degrees at 3:45 p.m. that day, even though the air temperature outside in Lakewood, New Jersey, was 67.8 degrees, the affidavit said.
‘Where is your baby?’ What happened that day
Faiga Ehrlich, Ehrlich’s wife and the mother of the victim, told police that her husband – who was normally responsible for dropping off three of their children each morning at school or at a sitter’s – had been tasked on that day with chauffeuring a fourth child after their 6-year-old missed the school bus, the affidavit said.
Faiga Ehrlich left for work at 9:30 a.m. while her husband was getting the children dressed and ready for daycare. Moshe Ehrlich loaded them into the family’s Toyota Sienna. The baby is normally dropped off at the sitter’s house first, but when Ehrlich reached that destination, he discovered he had forgotten the infant’s milk. Before returning home to retrieve the milk, he decided to drop off the 4- and 2-year-olds at daycare and the 6-year-old at school.
He then returned home, ran inside, fetched the milk and some other things he needed, and returned to the car. But instead of driving back to the sitter’s house, he drove to his next destination, the religious school, forgetting to drop off the baby altogether, according to the criminal complaint. He parked and went into the yeshiva at about 11 a.m.
At 1:30 p.m., he was told he had a call on the family emergency line. On his way to take the call, which was from his wife who was phoning after hearing from the babysitter, he was stopped by Zevi Kitay, the 19-year-old son of the babysitter, who had come looking for Moshe Ehrlich at the school.
“Where is your baby?” Kitay asked him.
Police officers watch as a minivan is loaded onto a flatbed tow truck on 5th Street between Monmouth and Princeton Avenues in Lakewood Tuesday afternoon, March 18, 2025. Earlier in the afternoon a child was reportedly found unresponsive in the vehicle.
Moshe Ehrlich told police he gathered his belongings and ran to the car, removed his baby and called Hatzolah of Central Jersey, an ambulance service in Lakewood. The baby was taken to a medical center and pronounced dead at 2:40 p.m.
At that time, a major criminal investigation launched into the boy’s death. A virtual autopsy, a noninvasive autopsy conducted using scans, was conducted about 6:30 that night, at which point a determination was made that a full post-mortem autopsy was necessary for the investigation. There did not appear to be any trauma to the baby’s body and a cause of death could not be determined until “cultures” taken could be tested, all according to the affidavit. Results are pending.
Moshe Ehrlich was charged with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
How kids get left in hot cars
The news that a child has perished in a hot car usually sends shockwaves through the local community and can make national headlines. Spectators wonder how a parent could forget their child.
These type of deaths most often happen when a parent or caregiver has a change in routine, or parents miscommunicate with each other over who’s in charge of taking the baby inside, and it isn’t discovered until it’s much too late, Kids and Car Safety founder Janette Fennell previously told USA TODAY. It’s important to be aware of the danger, because a deadly mistake can be made by any parent at any time, Fennell said.
The same brain mechanism that causes someone to leave their cup of coffee on top of their car and drive away also causes someone to leave a child behind, Fennell said. In many cases, a change in routine – like a parent who doesn’t normally do daycare drop-off – and a brain operating on autopilot leads to the tragedy.
Other times, kids get into cars by themselves while parents think they are down for a nap or playing safely, and they become trapped. Armani Shoemaker, 3, died May 3, 2024, after slipping out of her family home and into an unlocked car in Columbia, South Carolina, authorities said.
In 2024, there were 40 child deaths in hot cars in the U.S. from May to November. The most common months for the deaths are June, July and August when sweltering temperatures grip much of the nation. The tragedy has struck the families of over 1,100 kids since 1990, according to Kids and Car Safety. At least 7,500 other children have survived with injuries.
“In most situations, this happens to loving, caring, and protective parents,” the group’s website says. “It has happened to a teacher, dentist, social worker, police officer, nurse, clergyman, soldier, and even a rocket scientist. It can happen to anyone.”
Still, local authorities have discretion in whether to bring charges against parents who leave their kids in cars. A key question is whether they did it knowingly, though parents who say they accidentally left their child are still sometimes charged. More than half of hot car death cases didn’t result in a conviction between 1990 and 2020, according to an analysis by Kids and Car Safety. And about 41% of parents who unknowingly left their child in a car aren’t charged.
Tips to avoid a tragic accident
Never intentionally leave a child in a car alone, even if you think you’ll only be gone for a few minutes, experts say. To prevent a child from getting into a car on their own, always keep vehicles locked when not in use, make sure keys are kept out of reach. Ask neighbors to lock their cars, Fennell suggested.
Here’s what experts say you should do to prevent a tragic accident:
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Place a visual reminder that your child is with you, such as a diaper bag, in the front seat.
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Put an important item you need to start your day in the back seat, such as your cell phone, and make it a habit to always open the back door when you get out of the car.
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Ask your childcare providers to call you if your child isn’t dropped off as scheduled, because parents sometimes think they have dropped their child off and go to work, accidentally leaving them in their car seats all day.
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Fennell also said a tip she likes to give is to keep a stuffed animal in your child’s car seat at all times. When your child is put in the seat, the stuffed animal goes on the front passenger seat as a visual reminder.
HOW TECH CAN HELP: Technology in cars can alert when a child is left
Contact Asbury Park Press reporter Erik Larsen at elarsen@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: First US hot car death of 2025: Tragedy strikes in New Jersey
