North Carolina Grandmother, 50, Charged With Child Abuse After Leaving Infant in Hot Car at Animal Shelter

MONROE, N.C. — A Union County grandmother faces a misdemeanor child abuse charge after authorities say she left her eight-month-old granddaughter alone in a parked car with the engine off on a 96-degree day while she went inside an animal shelter to look at kittens available for adoption.

Dedra McManus, 50, was arrested Thursday, Sept. 3, by Union County Animal Services deputies at the Union County Animal Services building on Presson Road in Monroe. Surveillance footage reviewed by deputies showed the infant alone inside the vehicle for approximately 10 minutes before McManus returned. The Department of Social Services took custody of the child following the arrest. McManus was later released on a $3,000 secured bond, according to court records. The case draws attention to the persistent danger of leaving children unattended in vehicles during hot weather, a problem North Carolina has faced at a higher rate than most other states.

According to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, McManus drove to the animal services facility with a group of friends to browse kittens that remained available following the shelter’s “Clear the Shelter” adoption event held in August. Before going inside, McManus parked her vehicle between two fully marked Union County Sheriff’s Office patrol cars in the facility’s lot. Deputies said she turned off the car’s engine before entering the building, leaving her granddaughter inside the closed vehicle. Investigators reviewed surveillance video from inside the shelter and confirmed that McManus spent time in the adoption area looking at animals. The footage also showed her inside the building while the infant remained alone in the car outside. When McManus spotted three deputies moving toward the adoption area, she ran back to her vehicle, dropping her Apple Watch on the ground in the process, according to the sheriff’s office. She then returned to the building carrying the infant.

Emergency Medical Services personnel responded to the scene and evaluated the eight-month-old girl. Officials said the infant appeared to be unharmed. After the child was assessed, the Department of Social Services took emergency custody of the baby, a step consistent with North Carolina child welfare guidelines, which classify leaving a child unattended in a vehicle as potential neglectful supervision and authorize local DSS agencies to conduct emergency evaluations and assume protective custody. Animal services deputies placed McManus under arrest at the scene. What remains unclear from publicly available information is where McManus’s friends were during the period the infant was left alone, and whether any of them face separate scrutiny. The sheriff’s office has not addressed those questions in its public statements.

North Carolina does not have a standalone law specifically targeting children left in hot vehicles. Cases of this type are instead prosecuted under North Carolina General Statute 14-318.2, the state’s misdemeanor child abuse law, which covers knowingly creating or allowing a substantial risk of physical injury to a child under the age of 16. A conviction under that statute carries a sentence of up to 150 days in jail as a Class A1 misdemeanor, according to legal analysts familiar with the statute. The danger posed by even brief exposure inside a parked vehicle is well-documented. Testing by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows a vehicle’s interior temperature can rise 20 degrees Fahrenheit in as little as 10 minutes, with roughly 80 percent of that increase occurring in that initial window. On a 96-degree day, that rate of heat buildup pushes a closed cabin toward dangerous conditions almost immediately. NHTSA research also indicates an infant’s core body temperature rises three to five times faster than an adult’s, with pediatric heatstroke beginning at a core temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit and body temperatures of 107 degrees typically proving fatal.

North Carolina’s record on pediatric vehicular heatstroke is among the worst in the country. Data from Safe Kids NC and the North Carolina Department of Insurance ranks the state sixth in the nation for child deaths in hot cars, with 50 recorded fatalities between 1998 and 2026. Nationally, NHTSA figures show 39 children died from vehicular heatstroke in 2024 and 31 in 2025, contributing to more than 1,000 such deaths logged nationwide since 1998. State agencies operate public awareness campaigns, including a program called Stop, Look, Lock, to reduce these incidents during summer months. Data from the North Carolina Department of Insurance also indicates that roughly 19 percent of pediatric vehicular heatstroke incidents occur when an adult intentionally leaves a child unattended, compared to 54 percent resulting from a child being accidentally forgotten. The arrest adds to a recent string of child welfare cases in Union County. In August, a 27-year-old Monroe mother was charged with felony child abuse and involuntary manslaughter following a months-long investigation into an infant’s death. In April, a Union County toddler tested positive for methamphetamine, leading to charges against the child’s mother and her boyfriend.

Following her arrest, McManus asked deputies whether she could receive free kittens because she had missed the shelter’s Clear the Shelter adoption event in August, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office. “We quickly declined her request and transported her to the Detention Center,” the sheriff’s office stated in an official social media post describing the incident. McManus was initially held without bond at the Union County Detention Center. Court records show she was later released on a $3,000 secured bond on Friday, Sept. 4. A representative for the Union County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about whether additional charges are under consideration or whether the investigation remains open. No attorney of record for McManus had been publicly identified as of the time of publication, and McManus has not made any public statement regarding the allegations.

McManus remains out of custody on bond as of Friday, Sept. 4, pending further court proceedings. Her granddaughter remains in the custody of the Union County Department of Social Services. No hearing date has been publicly announced, and the Union County Sheriff’s Office has not indicated whether the investigation is ongoing or whether additional parties connected to the incident face potential charges.