3-year-old girl, 6-year-old boy die in hot car; sheriff says there’s ‘inconsistencies with the story’
Tiona Islar has been arrested on charges of injury to a child. Bexar County Sheriff’s Office
(SAN ANTONIO) — Authorities in San Antonio are investigating the apparent hot car deaths of a 3-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother after the local sheriff said there were “inconsistencies with the story” told by the children’s mom.
The mother, Tiona Islar, allegedly told authorities she last saw her son and daughter in the home around 10 a.m. Saturday, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said. Islar said she fell asleep, and then around 3 p.m. she found the children in the car and took them inside, Salazar said. Authorities were called around 3:25 p.m., the sheriff said.
A responding deputy “was simultaneously trying to perform CPR on both children, but unfortunately was not successful,” Salazar said. The siblings were pronounced dead at the scene, Salazar said.
Islar, 28, has been arrested on charges of injury to a child, according to the sheriff’s office.
Islar was “mostly cooperative” when taken in for questioning on Saturday, the sheriff told reporters, but he added the circumstances surroundings the deaths were not clear.
“The initial report was for, that the children were left in a car,” the sheriff said on Saturday. “However … there just are some inconsistencies with the story that we’re being given.”
“Something’s not adding up with this case,” Salazar said.
A sheriff’s office spokesperson said on Monday that authorities are still investigating and they’re awaiting the cause and manner of death from the medical examiner.
At least 29 children have died in hot cars in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org. At least 1,159 children have died in hot cars since 1990.
Salazar warned, “Every second counts when you’re talking about a child in a hot car.”
“If you come upon a child locked in a car, make every intent to open the doors initially,” he told reporters. “If they’re locked, at that point, it’s safe to say, break a window, do whatever you have to do to get that kid out of there.”
The deaths of two South Carolina women are being investigated as a possible homicide after their bodies were found in a rural, wooded area on Aug. 8, according to the Sumter County Coroner’s Office. Sumter County Sheriff’s Office
(SUMTER COUNTY, S.C.) — The deaths of two South Carolina women are being investigated as homicides after their bodies were found in a rural, wooded area on Friday, according to the Sumter County Coroner’s Office.
At approximately 1 p.m. on Friday, two bodies were discovered near a rural, wooded area in Rembert, South Carolina, off Richbow Road, officials said.
The person who discovered the bodies alerted authorities and “met deputies upon their arrival,” the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
On Friday, Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis — who joined investigators on the scene — said the deaths were “suspicious.” However, Dennis noted that they would need to wait until they “have the results of the autopsies to know more.”
In a press release shared with ABC News on Monday, the coroner’s office identified the victims as 35-year-old Christine Marie McAbee and 38-year-old Kristen Grissom, and said the deaths would be investigated as homicides.
The two were from Charleston County, which is over 100 miles from where their bodies were found.
The autopsies will be performed on Tuesday at the Medical University in Charleston, the coroner’s office said. Officials said the women’s families have been notified of their deaths.
Anyone with more information regarding the incident should contact the sheriff’s office at 803-436-2000 or submit a tip online.
More information regarding the deaths will “be released as it becomes available,” according to the sheriff’s office.
The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Two Americans have died from apparent drownings in separate incidents on the same day at the same Bahamas resort, officials said on Sunday.
The drownings occurred at Celebration Key, a new $600 million private resort for guests of Carnival Cruise Line that opened in July, authorities said.
“Our lifeguards and medical team responded to two separate emergency incidents at Celebration Key on Friday — one in the lagoon and one at the beach. Sadly, both guests have passed away,” Carnival Cruise Line said in a statement.
One of the drowning victims was a passenger on the Carnival Cruise Line ship Mardi Gras and the other was a passenger aboard the Carnival Elation, according to the cruise line. Both victims had been traveling with their families, according to Carnival.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the guests and their families and our Care Team is providing assistance,” the Carnival statement said.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force confirmed to ABC News that it’s leading the investigations into both deaths.
Just before noon on Friday, a 79-year-old man became unresponsive while snorkeling off one of the Celebration Key beaches, according to a police statement.
“A lifeguard assisted him from the water and CPR was administered, but to no avail. The male who is reported to be an American national was pronounced deceased by a medical doctors,” according to the police statement.
At about 2:30 p.m. on Friday, a 74-year-old woman was discovered unresponsive in a swimming pool at the resort, according to police.
A lifeguard pulled the woman from the waters and performed CPR, but could not revive her.
“As a result, the female who was reported to be an American national was pronounced deceased by a medical doctors,” according to the police statement.
Autopsies are scheduled to be performed to determine the exact causes of death, according to police. The names of the tourists were not immediately released.
Elsewhere, a 63-year-old American was attacked by a shark around 1 p.m. on Saturday while spearfishing off Big Grand Cay in the Bahamas, according to the Royal Bahamas Police force. The man, whose name was not released, was treated at a local clinic for what police described as “severe injuries” and was airlifted to the United States for additional treatment, according to police.
(LEWISTON, Maine) — One of Maine’s largest abortion care providers said it will have to dramatically cut services after a federal judge ruled earlier this week that the Trump administration is not required to restore Medicaid funding.
Under H.R.1 — the mega-bill that President Donald Trump signed into law last month — family planning and abortion providers are not allowed to collect Medicaid funding if they received at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in 2023.
The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) sued the Trump administration on behalf of Maine Family Planning — the largest network of sexual and reproductive health care clinics in the state — arguing that the provision violates the Equal Protection clause under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
However, Judge Lance Walker ruled that because Roe v. Wade was overruled in June 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion, Congress can “withhold federal funds and otherwise disassociate from conduct that is not enshrined.”
Medicaid funds are not used to cover abortion costs in most circumstances, but they are used to pay for other health care costs. George Hill, president and CEO of Maine Family Planning, said the network will have to cut services or drastically reduce the number of patients they can see.
“Right now, we’re not accepting new Medicaid-insured patients for primary care,” he told ABC News. “We are going to have to stop providing primary care to Medicaid enrolled patients, probably by the end of September.”
Hill said Maine Family Planning is not billing Medicaid for current Medicaid patients, but added that continuing to do so is likely not a sustainable option.
“It’s costing us, in lost revenue, about $165,000 a month,” Hill said. “That clearly is unsustainable. We’re spending a good deal of time getting the word out about the quality of the care that we provide, why it’s necessary in the areas that we provide, to a wide range of private donors. But … it’s not sustainable over the long term.”
Maine Family Planning has been receiving about $1.9 million a year in reimbursements, which makes up about 20% of its budget, Olivia Pennington, director of advocacy and community engagement at Maine Family Planning, told ABC News.
Pennington said the provision in the mega-bill was intended to prevent federal dollars from reaching Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S., but the Maine agency appeared to be caught in the crosshairs.
“We knew there was a chance we were going to get caught up in this attempt to defund Planned Parenthood,” she told ABC News. “We weren’t sure exactly what that was going to look like, but July 4, when that bill was signed, we were acutely aware that, as of that day, we had to stop billing MaineCare, which is what we call Medicaid here in the state of Maine.”
Pennington said that although Maine Family Planning does provide abortion care, the clinics also provide contraceptive care, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and HIV testing and prevention.
Maine Family Planning can also refer patients to other services, such as care for HIV treatments, Pennington said.
Additionally, at three of Maine Family Planning’s 18 brick-and-mortar clinics — mainly in rural and unserved areas — staff provide primary care. The agency also has a mobile medical unit for those who can’t make it to a physical location.
Pennington said the clinics are in areas with no public transit infrastructure and that the next closest clinic for patients may be as far as three hours away.
“There’s a lack of access to primary care in those areas,” she said. “For most of our patients, we know that we are the first and only health care provider they see in a year.”
Pennington added that half of all patients not receiving abortion care at Maine Family Planning are covered by Medicaid. Currently, the clinics are seeing those patients free of charge.
However, she is worried that not having Medicaid funding restored will result in a domino effect that could harm all patients, including those not on Medicaid.
“If MaineCare patients can no longer receive services at their local Maine Family Planning, other providers are going to be forced to absorb those patients,” Pennington said. “And because there’s already such a shortage of family planning and reproductive health care providers in the state, it will become much harder for everyone in the state to get health care.”
She went on, “We are continuing to see these patients free of charge because we believe that they deserve access to high-quality health care, but that’s not a sustainable option.”
Astrid Ackerman, staff attorney at CRR, told ABC News the team is prepared to explore every legal avenue to restore Medicaid funding for Maine Family Planning. She said the decision by the court this week is putting the health care of “thousands” of people in Maine in jeopardy.
“What is really happening is that it’s a way for the Trump administration to punish and go after abortion providers,” Ackerman said. “Medicaid funding has not … covered abortion, besides just some very limited exceptions, for decades — like they cannot use Medicaid funding for abortion generally.”
“So then the Trump administration, what they’re doing is trying to say, ‘Look, you are providing abortions. I know that I’m not giving you federal funding for abortions, but nonetheless, I’m going to punish you for providing abortion.’ Again, in a state [like Maine] where abortion is protected,” she added.
ABC News reached out to the HHS asking for a request for comment.
