NEED TO KNOW
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Christopher Scholtes, 38, was found dead in his car, which was parked inside a closed garage on Nov. 5, a police spokesperson tells PEOPLE
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He was due in court that morning at which time he was set to report to prison ahead of his sentencing later in the month
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Scholtes faced up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of daughter Parker, 2, who died after he left her in a hot car where the temperature reached 109 degrees
New details are emerging about the Arizona father who died by suicide after being convicted of murder following his 2-year-old daughter’s hot car death.
Christopher Scholtes, who was convicted of murdering daughter Parker Scholtes, was found “deceased inside a vehicle,” Sgt. Brian Bower of the Phoenix Police Department previously told PEOPLE.
Bower also said that the vehicle “was parked inside a closed garage” and that the death is being investigated as a “suicide death.”
Scholtes, 38, died on the same day he was set to report to prison ahead of his sentencing hearing.
Officers discovered Scholtes’s body after responding to a call at 5:22 a.m., according to Bower — just a few hours before he was set to make an appearance in Pima County Court.
Just a few weeks prior, Scholtes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his daughter, days before the start of his criminal trial.
He entered that plea after making a deal with prosecutors that would have seen him serve 20 to 30 years in prison. If he had been convicted at trial, Scholtes could have been sentenced to life or given the death penalty.
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Christopher Scholtes
Scholtes, who was out on bail ahead of his trial, was allowed to spend two more weeks at home with his doctor wife and their surviving daughters before having to report to prison.
His death is yet another tragedy for his surviving family members, who were already dealing with the loss of Parker, who died on July 9, 2024, after being left in the car by her father outside the family’s home.
Scholtes had been running errands and shopping that morning with Parker, and after arriving home, he brought in the groceries then decided to play video games — and at one point, he searched for porn.
Meanwhile, the temperature reached as high as 109 degrees while Parker sat in the car for over three hours until her mother discovered the toddler upon arriving home from work.
It was later revealed that Scholtes had previously left his children in the car prior to this tragedy.
That was mentioned both by his surviving daughters in their interviews with police and in the text exchange he had with his wife when she headed to the hospital on the day of Parker’s death.
Body camera footage recorded Scholtes admitting to responding officers that he’d left his daughter in the car.
Scholtes told the responding officers that he left his daughter in the vehicle with the air conditioning on because she was asleep in her car seat. He then claimed that he forgot about his daughter because he was distracted, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE.
He posted bail shortly after his arrest — and, in a surprise decision, the judge later approved his request to leave the state for a family vacation in Hawaii.
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Scholtes’s death also came shortly after his 17-year-old daughter from a previous relationship filed a lawsuit accusing him of neglect and abuse.
An Arizona Department of Child Safety report obtained by PEOPLE shows that there were nine complaints made by Scholtes’s daughter between 2014 and 2020, alleging instances of physical and emotional abuse and neglect.
The ADCS was never able to substantiate any of those allegations, though. After further investigation — and following the ninth report in 2020 — Scholtes’s daughter “transitioned to their mother’s care,” the agency noted.
In July 2025, there was also an allegation of sexual abuse made against Scholtes by his daughter, who said the alleged incident occurred in 2020.
“The investigation resulted in the removal of one child from the father’s home, but the other siblings were determined to not be in present danger and remained in the home,” the agency wrote. “The case remains open, and the Department is providing services to the child.”
Scholtes’s daughter had since withdrawn her lawsuit following the death of her father.
Her former guardian, Lindsay Eisenberg, who filed the lawsuit on her behalf, tells PEOPLE: “She requested I dismiss the lawsuit and told me she just wants to move on with her life and find peace. All the publicity around her life is too much for her to mentally handle, and she just wants to disappear from the limelight and move on with her life.”
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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