It sounds more like he forgot that the police aren't idiots and would eventually figure out that he murdered his kid.

I was wrong.

I can't even image what that poor baby went though.

how fucking horrible


poor baby

To a child. Much less your own flesh & blood in such a horrific manner. There is no punishment severe enough for this animal.

Just how does a father of a baby decide in advance not just to kill them but in a tortuous manner specifically chosen because they believed they could get away with it.

And after watching the video in another thread someone posted of a veterinarian that locked himself in a car in the sun with all four windows cracked for a half hour it REALLY hits home about how tortuous any living creature in such a situation is... they literally slowly BAKE to death. UGH!

To deliberately do that to a child - and your OWN child - even knowing what would happen since the father allegedly looked it up on the internet... I just can't manage to wrap my mind around it. I keep hoping he was mentally ill or something just because I'm so sickened by the idea that the guy is THAT evil. I mean, for heaven's sake, WHY? What possible reason could anyone use to justify doing this?

Last edited Thu Jun 26, 2014, 01:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Loss of jobs, threat of divorce, change in financial status are commonly big factors.

said they were a loving normal couple and were loving with the baby. I don't think there was any divorce or separation or anything. There was something though about them working at the same place or for the same company or something like that, but that might have been from people that used to work with them and how they met. I'll have to look into that. It does seem like it was a very different job than the one he had with Home Depot because apparently both of them were dispatchers.

I just thought that no mention of the mother just meant that she was being left alone by the press what with being in shock and grieving and arranging the funeral. The funeral is on Saturday from what I remember reading.

In looking for info about this case I also read about another story of a man that beat his son almost to death, was told by medical professionals that he was in a very bad way and needed immediate medical care but that the father brought him home and he died of his injuries. Nothing was said about the mother in that story either even though the medical professionals knew that the kid was being beaten frequently apparently because the father had anger issues because of the child having potty accidents (though the child seemed so young to me that he wasn't of an age to NOT have potty problems). Horrible story, but even with their being frequent beatings nothing was said about the mother.

In any case, I'd really like to know details of the family situation... there has to be an answer as to why he did this.

that said, babies change everything. many men do get resentful, because it's such a major drain on the woman's time and energy, often a big drop in attention and sexual activity from the mom, coupled with ever mounting expenses.

if they went through IVF, that could have left them really struggling and stressed out. I know great fathers, who adore their kids, who shockingly admit they would not do it again, and advise other guys not to marry and have kids. i'm sure most parents have moments, but damn.
I'm just talking stats, but yeah, pregnant women, and families are murdered for the same reason- evasion of responsibility. Horrible.

As far as mothers go, it used to be SOP to ignore them if it wasn't known they directly witnessed abuse. My brother held a mom against his supervisors advice because she called her daughter who reported rapes a lying brat. My brother assumed she would protect her husband, and would not let her use a phone until they got into the apartment to get the video tapes. He knew he was bending the law pretty far, but he'd seen enough of parents closing ranks against abused kids and could not let it happen, even if he got in trouble. As a bonus, he had to watch all the tapes, just so the counts of rape and sodomy could be counted. I felt so bad for him when he told me that.

When they lived in Alabama prior Harris worked as a 911 dispatcher. In 2012 Harris graduated from college and started working in IT when they moved to Georgia. His getting a job there with Home Depot apparently prompted the move.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/justin-ross-harris-returned-to-hot-suv-with-son-inside-according-to-warrant-1.8569736

Neighbors and acquaintances of Harris and his wife described them as loving parents. Harris is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and moved to Georgia in 2012 to work for Home Depot.

Their landlord, Joe Saini, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Harris and his wife are "very, very nice" people who were in love with their baby.

"Everything was going right for this couple," Saini said. "They wanted to buy a house so they could have some space for their child to run around the backyard."

Cory Burns, a police officer in Tuscaloosa, said Harris worked for the department as a dispatcher. Burns said his wife, Valissa, worked as a dispatcher alongside Harris and remembers that he and his wife were eager to have children but had some trouble conceiving.

Surely she should not be speaking to him at all? The two of them must have planned this evil event. They must be good actors.

I really don't know. I would have thought she was just in deep denial, but things she's said sound very suspicious to me. Making the funeral all about the father and not the dead son was more than strange, and saying the equivalent of wishing the boy was never born is really suspicious. She may very well have been in on it, but apparently the police don't think so at this time.

The general belief here in this state is that no life is worth anything unless it is still in the womb. Once it is out of the womb it is fair game.

How do you justify in your mind making such an absurd statement?

I just can't even believe anyone anywhere would imagine such insanity much less say it.

I hope they charge him with 1st degree murder

And then let the criminal justice play out fairly and if convicted send his ass to general population.

They both seemed perfectly normal and loving with each other and the baby. I did notice though that in a video of him with his attorney in front of the judge his wife appears to be absent. I can only imagine her grief and shock though perhaps she also knew of something that wasn't quite right about him in hindsight.

I also read in one article that I think it was a co-worker that mentioned they had difficulty conceiving the baby. I'm curious if the difficulty might have been that he didn't want a child. Or maybe the mother used donor sperm that he couldn't accept? I don't know. I keep looking for some shred of something to point to to get my mind around this. I just don't understand why anyone could possibly conceive of such a horror.

Thanks for the further info

Maybe it was a joint decision.

I'd like to know which parent routinely dropped the child off at daycare.

I have a health issue that could cause my death if I got overheated. Just thinking about how bad I feel when I get hot is enough to give me a panic attack. Trying to imagine what children or animals are feeling is too much for me.

Frankly, I hope he gets locked in a car in the middle of the hottest place on Earth and left there. After he's fairly tried and convicted, of course.

I read people have raised $20k for his defense already.

That's a key factor.

If they were made years before, it could very well be irrelevant.

If they were made after the child's death, it might have been some morbid curiousity on the father's part as to how long his son may have suffered.

However, if it was right before his son's death, that does look pretty bad indeed.

It certainly seems like police SOP to me.

The source was an officer speaking to the reporter anonymously since they wouldn't have had official permission to say anything about the case to the press. That seems to always happen with police departments... some officers are willing to put out more details as long as they don't get identified and thus get in trouble with the boss.

Personally, I'm taking the internet search information with a bit of a grain of salt because it's not "official" information cleared by the head of the investigation or chief or whoever. But with how quickly it came out I'm guessing that the internet searches were recent and still in his internet history. Then again, since the anonymous officer said that "someone" using the father's computer did that search without claiming it was the father since theoretically someone else with access to his work computer could have done it makes the claim even more credible to me.

The police didn't have access to the father's work computer until after his son was dead and was on his way home from work when he pulled over into a mall, pulled his dead baby out of the car and went into his dramatics about killing his son. There's also a couple of witnesses that were interviewed that thought that his behavior was overly dramatic and seemed as they they weren't genuine as though he was acting. I'm assuming that when the police became suspicious as they were talking to him at the scene they would have gone right to his office and got his computer but checked some quick things first like what was in his internet history.

Even if for some reason the internet searches turn out to not be true with their being certain that he went to Chick-fil-a with his son and before driving away strapped the kid in the car seat and then drove straight to work is reason enough that he had to have known his kid was in the car since he had just strapped him in and that since he drove straight to work he had no intention of taking the kid to day care. Add to that his going to his car on his lunch break, opening the driver's door and putting something in the car and still not noticing the kid was in there (he was likely dead by that time, and there would have been an odor in the car) is plenty enough that he did it on purpose.

....is this. This guy is an IT guy by profession. He would know full well how easy it would be to recover his internet history. So why would he make such a dumbass mistake?

I suppose it is possible that this was a spur of the moment crime and all, but still it seems weird.

IT guy or not he likely never thought that the police would check his computer or phone or anything he did that day, and he would just schmooze them with his terrible acting skills and they'd just believe him that it was just a horrible accident. There's been other stories over the years that a person's child died in a hot car that were only charged with minor charges or none at all having it deemed an accident. Kids die all the time in horrific accidents that parents or guardians aren't charged for because of there being no major negligence.

I'm betting he chose this method to kill his son because of researching that parents routinely aren't charged with any crime or only a minor one that amounts to maybe some community service or probation and really believed that it would be taken as just a horrific accident... which is why I think he did the overly dramatic acting job in front of the police and other witnesses at the mall where he claimed that . I don't think he ever imagined that there would be any investigation into where he was when and what he was doing or any probing into his computers, cell phones, etc.

I also don't think he would have had a clue as to what his son would look like or smell like after dying in his hot car and being in their dead for hours. I don't believe he anticipated any serious questioning immediately at the scene which is also why he suddenly got belligerent, really overly dramatic and said stupid things on the fly changing his story to try to make it work, like saying he pulled over because his son was choking when it was obvious to anyone that he'd been dead for hours.

Amateur idiot criminals like him imagine things are going to be like what they see on tv where dead bodies are only slightly grayish normal looking people that don't reek and their bowels don't open and empty their contents, where their blood doesn't settle at the body's lowest point creating ugly red/purple splotches... death ain't pretty, and those people that have never seen the real thing have no clue just how not pretty it is. Amateur idiot criminals don't think of making contingency plans or know how to cover their ass on the fly or have any idea just how much the police know just looking at him and just how to question him so he trips over his own tongue and digs himself into a hole he doesn't know how to get out of and never considered to begin with.

The police knew right away that this was no accident because they know what that looks like and sounds like, his behavior and story he changed but so obviously didn't wash anymore than his original story did, etc. He just didn't think any of this through or make contingency plans believing that what he imagined would happen in his head was just how it was all going to come out. Even the most experienced criminals still make a ton of mistakes. Amateur idiot criminals just out their own selves.

but I would be cautious about rushing to judgment until the investigation is complete. The District Attorney will have to decide on formal charges and take these to a grand jury. Based on what we have heard and read it appears the state has sufficient evidence to justify an indictment and trial.

But I would still be cautious on trying this man in the court of public opinion. As an attorney that doesn't do any criminal work I have a tremendous respect for the work of the investigators and the usual caution they and the DA take prior to an indictment. There are bad apples out there but my experience is they are generally very professional and focus on the task at hand.

was chocking when he first noticed him, but rigor mortis had obviously already set in. I suppose that might be why he got combative while being questioned.
Sad, but I always figured someone was going to use this dodge, like they try with accidental shootings, to cover up a murder.

He then got into the parking lot and removed the body from the car.
So how could he possibly have been searching anything on his work computer after the child was dead?

If not that would explain it

So, no, it wouldn't explain it.

Taken away for questioning is not an arrest. I doubt it was after the fact anyway. I don't think the search was related. If he meant to kill his son and wanted to find out how to do it that way, why would he change it to an animal? I think he was probably googling it for another reason. Maybe he was in an argument online or with someone about whether it's okay to break out car windows when you see a dog left alone in them. THat's a very common flamey discussion on lots of boards of all types. He could have googled it to get facts to bolster his argument.

Jeez.

He coudl have searched then. But as I said, it's more likely he did it before, because it doesn't make sense that he'd google about animals instead if that's why he was googling.

I figure someone might wonder about that if they thought that he was arrested some time after rather than at the scene. I actually don't know when he was arrested myself... I mean as far as whether or not he could have gone to work the next day or something.

But then again, why on earth would he go to work the next day after his child's sudden death. You're right, it doesn't make much sense. Those internet searches really would have had to have been done on his work computer before his claim of when he realized his son was in the car and died.

just the tip of the iceberg. It's just so fucking hard to comprehend. What the hell did he put in the car at lunch?
I'm too fascinated by this stuff, I'm the first to admit it.

I haven't found anything beyond the internet search for how long it takes for an animal to die in a hot car.

I'm usually fascinated by crime cases of all kinds. For some reason though this one really bothers me a lot, and I've followed loads of cases of the murder of children by one or more parent. Whatever the guy's reason I'll just never understand torturing your own baby to death in such a hideous way just because you think it's a good way to get away with it. How could he take his baby to the Chick-fil-a that morning knowing he was strapping his son into the car for the last time and go on his way to BAKING him to death. And then blithely sit at work doing his job not showing any signs to co-workers that a single thing was wrong and the final overblown drama act at the mall when that child's body had to be stinking up the car something awful. That guy should have horns, cloven hoofs and a forked tail so we'd know his evil on sight. And I don't even believe in the devil.

UGH!

the arrest before they found the internet search (which happened after the arrest) and they don't want to say what it is.
But it was enough to arrest him with. I guess they wanted to dampen the big outcry and assure people they have no doubt?

You know, he'd just have to be a total sociopath. It is incredible how you do not know they are that way until you catch them in the act doing something incredibly cruel with no remorse whatsoever. They can walk among us, pretending to care and be good people for years, and you might never get a sense of how detached they are. I think they'd not even think about the kid's suffering a moment, there is no capacity for empathy. I have a couple in my family, and I keep them at a great distance. They split up my family by telling loads of lies and causing fights for years. Took me a while to figure out where the ugly was coming from, and it was an eyeopener.

If his story was giving them pause, they may have checked them to confirm what he said regarding the timing etc. If they saw him enter/ leave the car mid-day, that would have sent warning bells off, especially if he neglected to mention to them that he had done so.

It had to have been painful. Temps in that car had to reach over 110!!!

What an ugly excuse of a human being to do that to your own child, let alone look up how long it takes for an animal to die!

What kind of world is this???

apparently no warning signs that this guy was so evil

All the web searches about Chloroform, her lack of concern her baby was missing. That monster got away with it when EVERYTHING pointed to her and the murder of her child.

He probably thought it would be okay to leave the child in the car because it wasn't going to be "too hot", and he made up a clever plan in which could could get away from his work out into the parking lot hourly to check on the boy; and then it starts getting hot, and he's not able to get out to check every hour or so because no one knows he didn't take the baby to daycare, and it's retail and they're strict about that timeclock, and he starts to panic and looking to see how long it would take for something bad to happen.

Criminally Stupid. He didn't need to intentionally decide to do what he did, he could just have been thinking he could get away with short-cuts in handling "a problem" and didn't think about the risks - he only thought about what would be the easist thing to do.

I know lots of guys (and gals) who would think lazy like that with the best intentions - "it would be okay because I'm checking on him, and if it gets too hot, then we can figure it out then". They assume that since nothing bad happened when they did that before and it was 70 degrees and cloudy, it won't be any different when it's 75 and sunny when you leave a living creature in a car for hours at a time. After all, five degrees isn't much of a difference, right? Crack the window, get that cross breeze, and it will be just fine.

Stupid, stupid people.

Haele

might. this one will depend on how much the jury believes him, and I am sure they will go in wanting to believe him.

There's a lot more too this than that. The baby had to have been dead for hours yet he claimed he was choking, tried to do CPR on an obviously long dead child, went out to the car on his lunch break and put something in the car but didn't check on his kid, etc.

He also didn't work in a retail position at a local Home Depot, he was in IT in their corporate office. Nope I don't believe a jury would believe him no matter what he claimed, and there isn't going to be anyone on the jury that wants to believe him so badly.

And who knows what other information will be found. This info is just the start.

None of the evidence being cited points absolutely to a purposeful act, IMO. I think it was an accident. The fact he works IT makes the google even more likely to be innocent. He's in IT. He'd know better than to google that where it would be easily found.

according to police. So it seems odd he would have driven a few miles without noticing that.

There IS much more to this and the news is trickling out. My first thought was they don't usually charge a parent with murder in such a case, at least not BEFORE they have completed an autopsy. It's usually child abuse or negligence. I think this is why people on the internet were outraged and confused.

Dead bodies especially ones that baked for hours in a hot car don't smell nice. I can't imagine that he went out to his car at lunch time and opened the door not detecting a thing. Even an alive but profusely sweating person left in a hot car for just a few minutes makes a noticeable reek when you open the door. I can't even imagine how horrible the smell must have been after that poor kid was dead in that car for hours.

When the father went out to his car at lunch time I'm not seeing how he wouldn't have fallen over from the stink unless he knew to hold his breath, open the door, chuck whatever he put in the car in, close the door and get away from it fast.

and then the idiot thinks it is reasonable. And in the absence of anything else damning but that internet search, he could get away. People cannot wrap their heads around plotting to kill a toddler, so I think it could end up a very tough sell.

But yeah, he could have gotten the child care, I don't think that dodge will work.
I was honestly hoping at first he was trying to cover up an accident by making the heat appear to be cause of death, but the baby was fine at Chick A Fil, right? Ugh, disturbing.

I don't see how it wold help his defense.

He worked in the office.

where was the mother during all this? Didn't the day care center call her to see why he wasn't there yet? Wouldn't the mother call in to the day care each day to check up on her child? I did. I don't understand all this.

As far as the father goes, are we supposed to believe that this child (who is NOT an infant) didn't make a SOUND in the car when his father was driving or when he went back to the car from eating or to put something in it at lunch time?

It's too fishy. This poor child was tortured and I hope we find out the whole truth soon.

and they have an arrangement that whoever has responsibility of the child on any given day does the checking up as well. Both parents should be involved in the welfare of their child, but if both work I can see that they would switch off between each other which one has the job of taking the kid to daycare and phoning in, etc. so both aren't doing double duty.

When my sister and her husband had just their first kid they both worked full time, so they switched between them which one had the kid duty that day or which one had responsibility for doing what. Since my sister had to take the bus to work but had a job where personal calls were more acceptable than where he worked and that she was much more likely to be available by phone he had the job of taking my nephew to daycare and picking him up after work, but my sister was the one to normally do the checking in calls, and the daycare knew to try calling her at work first before calling him. I suppose every parental unit has their own most convenient way of dividing the child care duties and organizing that with the daycare so everyone is on the same page day to day.

It was concerning that the daycare never phoned the mother to say the child never arrived, but they may actually have called the father at work first if it was his child duty day or responsibility that day, and who knows what story he told them. Or he may have called the daycare in advance and told them the kid was sick or something and wouldn't be coming in that day... personally, I think that's what he did - arranged with the daycare in advance to not expect his kid that day.

I'm also interested in seeing the toxicology testing they did on the body to see if he used anything to put the baby to sleep since he wouldn't have wanted him screaming his head off in the car while he was at work that someone might hear and foil his plan. I could see him using Benedryl or something similar since it's easy to excuse away but would make the baby sleep in the car. Perhaps that was the reason for going to the Chick-fil-a - to get the kid some food or drink to hide some kind of sleep inducing medicine in. It did seem odd to me that he'd take his kid to the restaurant before driving off to work with him knowing he was on his way to killing him. But then again, maybe that was their regular routine. Chick-fil-a seems like an odd restaurant to go to in the morning though. The stop at Chick-fil-a did raise my eyebrow.

... are actually really tasty.

Way too expensive, but tasty.

No idea why considering they're open at that time. I never do fast food so I really don't know what all they have these days.

He actually searched to see how long it would take.

I just don't understand people that do these sorts of things to their own children.

The distance from the Chick-fil-a to the father's office was around a half a mile and took around five minutes to drive. The father put the baby into his car seat in the car after leaving the Chick-fil-a and proceeded to his office... how can anyone strap their baby into the car seat and only about 5 minutes later forget they are in the car??? How can anyone strap their baby into the car seat and immediately forget the child is supposed to go to the day care but instead immediately drives to their office?

See this video that shows how close the office was to Chick-fil-a, the driving time and mileage, the distance between his office and the mall where he suddenly realizes his baby is still in the car after his working a full day not to mention having gone out to his car during his lunch break and put something in it and somehow still not noticed the baby as well as interesting witness comments about his behavior at the mall...

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/06/26/ac-dnt-savidge-child-hot-car-death-timeline.cnn.html

he allegedly had searched online for information on how long it takes a dog to die when left in a hot car. The police supposedly confiscated his computer and found that in his recent search history.

I don't remember where I read that, though, so take it with a grain of salt until I find the source.

There's plenty of others though the police have been mum about that... which is actually encouraging because if it wasn't true they'd just say it wasn't.

I couldn't read your OP.

Whatever actually happened, it's awful. Doesn't help, either, that the poor little guy reminds me a lot of what my oldest son looked like at that age.

This evil crime just bowls me over. I just can't understand how anyone could do this to their own baby. It's the incredible indifference and the torturous method of BAKING him in the car. UGH!

this wasn't an infant. How likely is it that this toddler would fall asleep so fast after breakfast that he wouldn't have been babbling the whole five minutes? Or at least 2 minutes of that time?

This is all fishy.

All kinds of fishiness going on this case.

I am sitting between those two points as I type this.

especially to his own child. But the google search? Wow. Just wow. That poor baby!

my first reaction in these cases, I always feel terrible for the parents. In this case, it just doesn't add up. I STILL feel terrible for the parents but it's going to be really crappy if it turns out this was on purpose.

and the car thing was just a cover up. That actually makes much more sense than a father torturing and killing his child in such a gruesome manner. Last night some experts discussed how this crime doesn't fit any of the profiles they've seen of fathers who kill their kids (they usually kill themselves after).

restaurant.
Also the cause of child's death is hypothermia. So he did die of overheating.

that death was caused by hyperthermia.