Three-year-old Zim girl dies after two hours in locked car in Australia

Tanatswa Mupedzi died in Westmead Hospital on Christmas Eve after being pulled unconscious from the back seat of a white sedan outside a home in Glenwood, where it was ­believed she had been for about two hours.

The girl’s grandmother, a registered nurse, led a frantic CPR attempt with the girl’s mother before police and NSW Ambulance crews arrived around 4.45pm. But tragically the youngster went into cardiac arrest and later died.

“When police arrived, family were performing CPR inside the home … a crime scene has been established at the location while police investigate all the circumstances,” a NSW Police statement said.

The Mupedzis had been preparing for Christmas but the events made for a devastating scene at the house.

Loud sobbing rang out in the neat, suburban Cameo Circuit where the family tried to come to terms with the loss of their little girl.

Friends and relatives flanked a woman, believed to be the girl’s mother, as she circled the block while neighbouring homes hosted Christmas lunch.

Police initially treated the terrible incident as suspicious but now believe it was a tragic result of confusion about who was keeping an eye on Tanatswa.

Officers from Quakers Hill Local Area Command are now investigating whether the girl’s aunt and grandmother thought someone else was watching her during the time she was unaccounted for. They will also try to determine whether the child was left in the car or made her own way into it.

Neighbours described the family as “beautiful” people whose children were often seen in the street.

“It’s so sad at any time of year but at Christmas it’s so awful,” one neighbour said.

Tanatswa’s death follows a warning from the NRMA last month about the dangers of leaving children in locked cars. It has rescued a total of 2243 babies from locked vehicles in NSW and the ACT in the past year. The Daily Telegraph