He killed his daughter, 2, in a hot car then committed suicide on day he was due to be jailed. The method he chose is truly shocking

A father who killed himself on the day he was to be jailed for leaving his toddler to die in a hot car chose a particularly chilling method to end his life.

Christopher Scholtes was found dead about 5.20am on Wednesday at the $1 million home in Phoenix he shared with his wife Dr Erika Scholtes.

The day after his suicide, he was supposed to begin a 20 to 30-year prison sentence for the second-degree murder of his daughter Parker, two, who died in July 2024. 

Scholtes, 38, was ‘found deceased in his car, which was parked in the garage’, the Phoenix Police Department told the Daily Mail.

He is believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, and the Maricopa County Medical Examiner said that was being investigated as a possible cause of death.

The make and model of the car were not specified, but family said it was not the same 2023 Acura that Parker died in. 

Scholtes killed himself on November 4, 16 months after Parker slowly died in the back seat of the family car where he left her for three hours in 90F heat. 

He was found to have watched pornography and played video games while the toddler was being killed by extreme heat. 

The killer dad struck a deal with prosecutors last month to plead guilty to second-degree murder and be jailed for 20 to 30 years without parole.

But he was allowed to stay out on bail until Wednesday when he would be taken into custody, and used that time to plot his suicide.

Erika was at work as an anesthesiologist at Banner University Medical Center, the same hospital Parker was taken to, while her daughter was left in the car. 

It is unclear if she was at home when her husband took his own life, but there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on her part and she has never faced any criminal charges.

Erika strongly supported her husband during his court case, even calling Parker’s death ‘a mistake’ and begging for him to be released on bail at his first hearing. 

Prosecutors appeared shaken and emotional as they left court after the hearing, having heard of Scholtes’s death.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said ‘justice was not served appropriately this morning’ in a statement confirming Scholtes died by suicide.

She promised Parker’s life would never be silenced, and directing words of comfort towards her two sisters. 

‘May you be surrounded by love, may you received all of the support you deserve and need, and then some. May you know and believe that you can survive and thrive,’ she said.

‘When you look back on this time as the years follow, may you not feel tied down by what happened here, but rather lifted up by your baby sister’s wings.’

Chris Scholtes’s protracted legal defense has not been cheap as he pleaded not guilty last year and rejected a plea deal in March that would have let him off with as little as 10 years behind bars.

Just six months later he had no choice but to accept a far worse deal for 20 to 30 years jail on second-degree murder and child abuse charges.

The Scholtes family moved 94 miles from the house in Marana where Parker died after buying a $1.025 million four-bedroom, 2,369sqft home in the Phoenix suburbs in April.

Scholtes was facing more than jail time when he took his own life, as his teenage daughter from a previous relationship sued him and Erika last week.

The teen, now aged 17, claimed she suffered abuse at Scholtes’s and Erika’s hands and is also seeking damages over her half-sister’s death, according to the complaint that Eisenberg filed in her behalf.

Neither of the couple responded to the lawsuit before Scholtes took his own life.

The girl told the Daily Mail via her former guardian that she ‘wasn’t surprised’ he killed himself to escape prison.

Lindsay Eisenberg, who looked after the teen after her mother died last year, described how she broke the news about her father’s death.

‘She said “I knew he was going to do this, I knew he was going to commit suicide”. Then she asked if her sisters were OK,’ Eisenberg said.

‘She has very mixed feelings about her father dying – she’s happy, sad, a whole bunch of emotions… more relieved and at peace than sad.

‘But it gave her some closure because that man has caused so much chaos and drama and heartache in her life.’

The girl is also said to be worried for her half-sisters – Scholtes and Erika’s two surviving daughters – who are aged 10 and six. 

‘She wants to pursue the civil suit against Erika even more and fight her for custody of her little sisters when she’s 18 in two weeks,’ Eisenberg said. 

Scholtes left Parker napping in his 2023 Acura running with the air-conditioning on outside his house during the scorching weather.

But he lost track of time while he played on his PlayStation, drank booze and watched adult videos, and the vehicle shut off.

The Pima County Medical Examiner said the temperature inside the car was 108.9F when first responders arrived and confirmed Parker died of heat exposure.

Texts between Scholtes and Erika revealed he’d previously left his children in the car for extended periods. 

As Parker was rushed to the hospital, Erika texted Scholtes saying: ‘I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you.’

She later added: ‘We’ve lost her, she was perfect.’ 

Scholtes replied: ‘Babe I’m sorry! How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real.’ 

Their other two children, then aged nine and five, told police their father regularly left all three siblings alone in the car.

The youngsters told police Scholtes ‘got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away’, according to the criminal complaint.

A PlayStation and other electronics were taken away as evidence.

Prosecutors wrote in court documents that Scholtes also searched the internet for men’s clothing at Nordstrom and for pornography from 2.02pm to 2.30pm.

Scholtes also left Parker alone in the car on his way home that day while he shopped at a gas station and a supermarket.

He shoplifted beer from both shops, some of which he later drank while Parker was dying, according to the documents.

Security camera footage showed him swipe the alcohol from the gas station, go into the bathroom, and emerge with fewer cans than he went in with.

Scholtes finally arrived home at 12.53pm, just as his older daughters returned from a trampoline park he let them go to unattended.

He initially told detectives he pulled in at 2.30pm, but changed his story after it was proven a lie by security footage.

Parker was left to nap in the car while they all went inside, and was not retrieved until after 4pm when Erika got home from work.

Erika came inside and asked where the toddler was, prompting a frantic rush to the car by both parents and the arrival of first responders soon after.

Parker was declared dead in hospital just an hour later.

Investigations into how she died revealed a disturbing pattern of alcoholism, child neglect and past drug abuse.

The older daughters said their parents often fought about Scholtes’s behavior, especially how much he drank.

‘He still drinks too much beer, and he keeps leaving us in the car when my mom told him to stop doing this,’ one of the girls said, according to documents. 

‘That’s how he made my baby sister die.’ 

Other texts between the couple showed Erika increasingly furious about her husband letting his drinking put the children’s lives at risk.

‘You haven’t shown me you can stop putting the girls in danger or not treat me badly,’ she wrote on March 11 last year. 

‘Even yesterday, you drove home drunk with two minors. You drink to excess every time. You can never have just one. I’ve been asking for three years to cut back and it’s actually gotten worse.’

Scholtes promised to ‘find relief and happiness elsewhere’ but Erika countered that the last time he did that he merely replaced booze with cocaine.

‘At least this one is legal, right?’ he replied.

‘I’m a piece of shit addict and I need to get addicted to healthy things like running again.’ 

But just ten days later she raged at him for allegedly driving 138mph after drinking, with Parker in the car, calling both ‘shitty decisions’.

‘You hate me,’ he replied. ‘And she was sleeping, it’s fine.’

While on bail, the court gave Scholtes permission to go on vacation to Maui with his doctor wife Erika and their surviving children earlier this year.

It was to be their final trip as a family.