The mother of a 3-year-old boy who was found dead in a Bondurant garage in late June has turned herself in.
Tiffani R. Huff Holmes, 41, surrendered to the Polk County Jail late Sunday, Dec. 21, and was charged with a Class B felony count of child endangerment resulting in death, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Monday.
The charge stems from an investigation on June 28, when deputies and Bondurant EMS were called to the home for an unresponsive child. After resuscitation efforts failed, the boy was pronounced dead on the spot.
A search warrant application in August revealed the child may have been overheating in the enclosed garage.
When Holmes called 911, she told the dispatcher that her son’s lips were blue, according to the search warrant. She found the child in the garage but followed the dispatcher’s instructions to take him inside and perform CPR.
She told investigators she had taken a nap and when she woke up, she found her son sitting in a folding lawn chair in the garage with the garage door closed, the warrant said.
Holmes told investigators the child was “hot to the touch” and “sweating a lot,” and she brought him inside to try to calm him down. She couldn’t remember when she went to sleep and said she woke up about five to 10 minutes before calling 911. The high temperature that day was 91 degrees, according to AccuWeather.
The child’s father, who returned home after being notified of the incident, told investigators that Holmes had struggled with alcoholism for about five years and that she was not allowed to drink in the home. Officers found a nearly empty bottle of vodka, but they were unable to draw blood because she allegedly admitted she drank the vodka after the child’s death.
The father told investigators the child would not normally enter the garage and could not open the door. Investigators found the garage door was damaged and had to be opened manually.
Holmes is being held on $1 million bond.
Nick El Hajj is a reporter for The Register. He can be reached via: nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @nick_el_hajj.
This article originally appeared in the Des Moines Register: Bondurant mother charged with child endangerment in son’s death
