Christopher Scholtes, 38, died by suicide on November 5, 2025, hours before he was scheduled to report to prison for his role in the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Parker. A family nanny discovered Scholtes in the garage of his Phoenix home around 5:20 a.m., according to a 911 call recording.
The nanny reported that Scholtes had intentionally used exhaust from his Honda S2000 to gas himself and that he was not breathing and had no pulse. She also alerted emergency services to smoke billowing into the house from the garage, stating she was trying to get the family's other two young daughters out of the home.
Scholtes had pleaded guilty a month prior to a second-degree murder charge for leaving his daughter Parker in a hot car in July 2024. He was awaiting sentencing, where he faced up to 30 years in prison.
Authorities stated that Scholtes left his daughter in the family's Acura in the driveway of their Marana home, near Tucson, on a July afternoon when temperatures reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit. He claimed he had left the toddler in the car for about 30 minutes while she napped, not wanting to wake her. However, court records indicated he left her for over three hours, admitting he knew the car's air conditioning would shut off within half an hour.
During this time, Scholtes was reportedly watching pornography, playing video games, and drinking beer. Parker was not discovered until her mother, an anesthesiologist, returned home around 4 p.m. Bodycam footage from responding officers shows Scholtes in a panic, insisting he had only left her in the car for a short period. A police report recounted one of his older daughters stating, "My dad started screaming cause he walked outside and he saw that she was in the car still, her lips were purple and she wasn’t breathing."
Parker was transported to Banner University Medical Center but died within an hour. The medical examiner, Daniel Casa, noted that Scholtes had begun making suicidal statements following his daughter's death.
Scholtes had a history of leaving his children unattended in vehicles. Older children from a previous marriage told investigators he would leave them in cars when they were young. His younger daughters also reported that he regularly left all three of them in the car while he went inside. Text messages between Scholtes and his wife, Erika, also confirmed this behavior. "I told you to stop leaving them in the car," Parker's mother texted him after the incident. "How many times have I told you?" Scholtes replied, "Babe, I’m sorry. Babe, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be real."