The nanny’s voice crackled over the line – high-pitched, hysterical, on the verge of tears, and barely understandable.

‘I found the dad in his car… I think he’s dead. There’s no pulse… he’s dead,’ she wailed.

The young woman had just discovered Christopher Scholtes slumped in his red Honda S2000 in the garage of his $1 million home in Phoenix on November 5, 2025.

Scholtes, 38, had taken his own life hours before he was to start a 20 to 30-year jail sentence for leaving his daughter to die in a hot car outside their house.

Two-year-old Parker Scholtes was found dead in the family’s blue Acura in July 2024 after three hours trapped inside the SUV just a few feet from her dad as he drank beer, watched porn and played video games.

Scholtes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges last year, but gassed himself to death in his car while his family slept rather than go to jail. 

After discovering Scholtes dead, the traumatized nanny told the 911 operator in the six-minute call at 5.20am how the garage was full of fumes and his wife, Dr Erika Scholtes, was struggling to get their two other daughters out of the house.

‘Why do you think he’s dead?’ the operator asked. The nanny, who has not been identified, explained that the car was still running and described in detail how Scholtes had poisoned himself.

Christopher Scholtes, 38, took his own life on November 5, the same day he was to begin a 20 to 30-year prison sentence for the second-degree murder of his daughter

Parker Scholtes, 2, died of heatstroke after her father left her napping in a hot car while he drank beer, watched porn and played video games for three hours

‘He’s in our home garage, it’s suicide, it’s suicide,’ she said, through tears. ‘He’s not breathing, and I can’t find a pulse.

‘It (the garage) was locked and I had to get the keys to open the garage door and then I found him in there.

‘He was supposed to… he had to surrender tomorrow.’

The 911 operator brought the emergency dispatch onto the call, using a code for a possible dead person at the address, who asked if the garage was still closed.

‘No, I opened the garage door because the carbon monoxide is so bad, like, it was coming into the house,’ the nanny replied.

She explained that she heard Scholtes arrive home between 12.30 and 1am, but not him coming inside the house from the garage.

‘I just thought he was in the garage, I didn’t think anything of it, but I got up to get the girls ready for school and…’ she said, before starting to cry.

The dispatch told her help was on the way and to get everyone out of the house, which the nanny said was already happening.

Scholtes, 38, was found dead in his beloved red Honda S2000 inside the garage of their new home (pictured in the former family home on the day Parker died) 

The Scholtes family moved 94 miles from the house in Marana where Parker died after buying a four-bedroom, 2,400sqft home in the Phoenix suburbs in April. Scholtes was found dead in the garage

Christopher Scholtes (left) and his wife Erika, holding Parker in her arms, along with their two older daughters

The nanny said Scholtes’ mother had just arrived, but it was unclear if she meant his biological mom or stepmother.

‘She checked his pulse, too, and she said there’s no pulse. I was shaking so bad, I thought maybe I was doing it wrong and I should do something, but she said there’s no pulse,’ she said.

The nanny was heard telling someone, presumably Erika or Scholtes’ mother, to get the two girls completely out of the house.

‘I got them up to get the girls out, but they haven’t, like, gotten the girls out – like everything is kind of chaotic,’ she told the emergency operators.

Seconds later, she said the police had arrived and the call ended. 

Scholtes’ autopsy report, released last December, confirmed he died of self-administered carbon monoxide poisoning.

A suicide note was left inside the house and Scholtes left a living will on the roof of the car in case his suicide attempt failed but left him disabled, the report revealed.

Medical examiner Daniel Casa wrote that a rope and a ladder had also been arranged in the garage in a manner that suggested Scholtes had a backup suicide plan. 

The killer dad was found with a blood carboxyhemoglobin level of 80 percent – far higher than the two to three percent of a healthy non-smoker.

Marijuana, caffeine and diphenhydramine – the active ingredient in cold and flu medications like Benadryl – were also found in his blood.

The blue 2023 Acura MDX parked in the driveway of the family home in Marana, Arizona on July 9, 2024 – the day Parker died

Casa cataloged Scholtes’ long list of health conditions, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and ADHD, plus cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana use, and a degenerative joint disease.

‘He reportedly made suicidal statements after the death of his daughter, and he had recently exhibited a depressed mood,’ Casa wrote.

The report noted that Scholtes was ‘under stress’ due to his criminal case and he was expected to report to prison on the day he was found dead.

Casa’s report matches a neighbor’s visceral account to the Daily Mail of the moments after Scholtes was found.

‘They were all standing looking at the car and he was already in the car dead at that time,’ said the neighbor, who had a clear view of the chaotic scene through the open garage door.

‘All of a sudden [Erika] started walking around and this other lady pulled up all frantic and they ran up to the door. Then the police and the fire department showed up.

‘I don’t know how far [the fumes] went into the house, but the kids were there, the family was there. It could have been bad.’

Scholtes killed himself 16 months after Parker died in the back seat of the family car in the driveway of the former family home in the Tucson suburb of Marana, Arizona, where he left her in 90F heat.

The Scholtes family pictured together in happier times. Dr Erika Scholtes must now contend with the loss of her husband and her youngest daughter  

Scholtes left Parker napping with the air-conditioning on and the car running outside his then-home during 109F weather – but it switched off after 20 minutes

The unemployed father left his youngest daughter napping for three hours in the boiling hot family car while he drank beer, played video games and watched porn inside the house as she slowly died. 

He told police that he left Parker in the car with the engine running and the air-conditioning on because she was asleep when they arrived home.

However, he lost track of time and the engine automatically shut off after about 20 minutes – as police testing confirmed. 

Crime scene photos previously obtained by the Daily Mail showed tiny handprints on the inside of the window in the blue family 2023 Acura MDX.

The haunting marks on the rear driver’s side window were just inches from where Parker’s forward-facing car seat was buckled in.

Police testing found the surface temperature of the car seat was 149.1F, according to detailed incident reports by the Marana Police Department. 

Parker was only found when Erika came home from work at Banner University Medical Center in Tucson – where the toddler was declared dead an hour later. 

Erika now works as an anesthesiologist at Banner’s Phoenix hospital.

Scholtes’ two surviving daughters described to detectives the frantic moment before the couple realized where Parker was and sprinted to the car.

‘[One of the girls] said when her mom got home she asked, “Where’s the baby?” and her dad said, “Where’s the baby!?” and ran outside,’ one officer wrote.

‘”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.”

‘When they saw her mom and dad crying, they knew Parker was dead.’

Erika was seen packing away Halloween bits and putting up Christmas decorations last December as she kept a low profile since her husband’s suicide

Crime scene photos taken by the Marana Police Department showed tiny handprints on the inside of the window in the car inches from where Parker was strapped in

Erika continued to stand by her husband up to his suicide – petitioning the court for his release and for permission to take a holiday to Maui in Hawaii. 

She also bought a beautiful $1 million four-bedroom, 2,369sqft Italian villa-style family home in Phoenix in April last year.

Scholtes rejected a plea deal in March 2025 that would have seen him serve up to 10 years behind bars.

Just six months later, Scholtes had no choice but to accept a far worse deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder and be jailed for 20 to 30 years without parole.

But he was allowed to stay out on bail until November 5, when he would be taken into custody, and used that time to plan his suicide.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call or text the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US on 988. There is also an online chat available at 988lifeline.org.