3-year-old girl found dead in SUV outside Maine convenience store was left for more than 14 hours, police say

Boston Globe

21 hours ago

The body of a small dog was found on the floorboard, its head resting on the girl's right foot, police said.
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The girl apparently died from
Brown, who was visiting family in the area, has been charged with manslaughter.
Her 67-year-old mother, who lives in Plymouth, Mass., had recently reported her daughter and granddaughter as missing and that her daughter's behavior had 'changed significantly' recently, according to the affidavit.
The woman told police that they visited family in the area for about a month each summer. She said she believed Brown left Pennsylvania with her daughter on July 30 and stayed that night at her home in Plymouth, according to the affidavit.
They left Plymouth and stayed at her summer home in Clifton, Maine, on July 31, and went to stay with Brown's grandmother on Ambajejus Lake from Aug. 1 to 7, according to the affidavit.
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She said they were supposed to remain at the lake, and when they didn't, she called Brown. Brown said she and her daughter were camping along the Penobscot River, the affidavit stated.
She told police Brown 'had been posting bizarre things on her social media accounts over the last few weeks,' and that around July 25 Brown had begun posting videos to her Facebook account, 'Health Coach Brown,' that she described as 'disturbing,' the affidavit stated.
'Kelly Brown reported to [her] that she had been hallucinating, was hearing voices of shamans, and seeing people that weren't there,' police said. 'Kelly Brown also said that the voices she was hearing were telling her what to do.'
On Saturday, Brown told police that she locked her daughter and dog in the car and intended to return quickly but fell into the Penobscot River and was swept away.
Brown allowed a detective to photograph 'numerous scratches and bruises on both her lower arms and lower legs,' police wrote. 'Kelly Brown claimed that the injuries had occurred when she fell down the embankment and into the Penobscot River.'
When she was informed that her daughter and dog had died, Brown 'began to scream,' police wrote in the affidavit. She said they 'were her world, and she didn't know what to do,' police said.
The child's body was taken to the chief medical examiner in Augusta, where an autopsy found that 'hyperthermia (an elevated body temperature) was consistent with the symptoms presented and was the most likely cause of death based on the current information,' State Police said.
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According to the affidavit, the temperature had reached 82 degrees in Bangor on Aug. 9, and police noted that the interior temperature of a vehicle on a hot day can be 'dangerously higher than the ambient temperature outside.'
Brown had an initial appearance Monday at the Penobscot Judicial Center, where she was formally charged.
Emily Sweeney can be reached at