GRENADA, Miss. — One week after his infant daughter was discovered in the backseat of his hot car, Josh Blunt stood outside his home here, unable to go inside.
Blunt, 25, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 8-month-old Shania Caradine after he left the infant in a car while he went to work.
"I can’t go in the house,” Blunt said Thursday. “I went in there. I couldn’t take it.
"I went in earlier, just trying to get something," he said. "I couldn’t stand to be in there. I miss her smell, her smile. I miss her. She just made me happy.”
Originally in jail on a $250,000 bond, Blunt was released Tuesday on his own recognizance. A preliminary hearing is scheduled July 26, according to court records.
Since Shania's death May 19, two other children have died from apparent heat stroke after being left in vehicles as temperatures climbed into the mid-80s, according according to Jan Null, a lecturer at San Jose State University in California who keeps track of heat stroke deaths of children in vehicles. Nine deaths have occurred so far this year, 24 in total in 2015.
An 11-month-old girl died Monday in Hialeah, Fla.; an 8-month-old boy died Wednesday in Wilmington, N.C. No arrests were made in either case.
Hours before his daughter’s wake Thursday afternoon, Blunt said, “She was my everything.”
“People say they understand, but they don’t," he said. "They don’t understand."
Blunt's lawyer, Carlos Moore, advised him not to talk about the case, but he agreed to talk about Shania.
Tears flowing down his face, Blunt choked out words to describe “my gorgeous little Shania.”
“Shania, Shania was the type of girl that just lit up a room,” he said. “Words could not express when my baby, when my baby looks at you and she just smiles.
"It don’t make a difference what type of day you had. It could be the worst day, but my daughter made my day like a bottle of sunshine," Blunt said. "She was my day. She was my day. When I was down, she kept me up.”
Blunt said he has been unable to sleep. He appears barely able to stand as he talks about his daughter.
He sways with the summer breeze.
Pulling a picture from his wallet, Blunt looks at an image of him holding newborn Shania. Folded in a square, framing the infant’s face, the picture is well worn and faded in the creases.
“She was my everything,” he said. “She was what kept me strong in this world."
Birds chirp in the background. Blunt’s chin begins to quiver.
“She loved outside," he said, taking a deep breath. "I used to take her to the back door and walk around so she could just enjoy life. Everywhere I went, my baby, I kept her with me.
That was my other half," Blunt said. "I would never wish this on nobody. It’s so much to bear.
Neighbors and family members said Blunt's girlfriend left town after Shania's death.
Confusion has surrounded Blunt’s case in the past week as his lawyer told multiple media outlets that the murder charge against his client had been dropped. However, George Douglas, Grenada's assistant police chief, said the charges still stand.
Grenada City Prosecutor Jennifer Adams-Williams said she will not present the second-degree murder charge in Grenada Municipal Court. However, the district attorney will present the case to a grand jury.
Despite Moore's claim that he is representing Blunt, Adams-Williams said Blunt does not have an attorney of record.
Grenada County District Attorney Doug Evans has not returned repeated requests for comment. However, Evans appeared on TV saying the case will be presented to a grand jury, which will decide whether to indict Blunt.
Standing under the shade of a tree, Blunt is disheveled. His shirt, wet with drops of tears, is untucked and his belt has missed a loop on his jeans.
Wiping his face with his hand, Blunt said Shania was a blessing long prayed for.
“I didn’t even think I could have kids,” he said. “The Lord blessed us, and we finally had a kid. Everything was so perfect. I prayed to the Lord for a family. He gave me one of my own.”
Eyes glazed over and eyelashes heavy with tears, Blunt stared into the distance.
“My daughter loved to dance,” he said. “It didn’t make a difference what type of music it was. She was a loving baby. Oh, man.”
Blunt's boss and owner of the restaurant where he worked said Blunt was a “wonderful father” who was “ecstatic” and “elated” when he found out he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby.
“He’s always been a wonderful father, and we can’t imagine that he would ever do anything to harm that baby,” Allyson Worsham said.
According to his lawyer, Blunt went to work at 9 a.m. CT May 19 at 333 Restaurant. He left work at 11 to go pick up his daughter and his girlfriend, drop his girlfriend at work at KFC and then take Shania to a grandmother.
But after he dropped off his girlfriend, Blunt went back to work, the baby still strapped in her car seat in the back.
Blunt and a co-worker discovered Shania four hours later, still alive. His co-workers reportedly wrapped the infant in cold towels until the ambulance arrived.
A Grenada Police Department incident report said Blunt was standing outside the ambulance door crying when police arrived.
Despite efforts to save her, Shania died at University of Mississippi Medical Center Grenada. Grenada County Coroner Jo Morman said the infant had an elevated body temperature because of her time in the vehicle.
Worsham said she and the rest of the staff carry guilt in Shania’s death.
“We all have guilt about it because we were all in the building working, going about our normal work day,” she said.
Throughout his shift, multiple people passed by Blunt’s car. No one saw the baby.
“He parked where he always parked, over near the Dumpster,” Worsham said. "During the day co-workers came and went, we took trash out and nobody saw or heard anything, and we didn’t know.
"And so that’s what was so horrible about it," she said. "Any one of us would have done all we could, but we didn’t know. And he didn’t."
Since Shania’s death, Worsham said she’s been worried about Blunt’s health.
“Every time I talked to him, he talked about taking his own life,” she said.
In the days following his daughter’s death, Blunt said he’s been dealing with the emotions and the grief by himself, “wishing you could do anything to be with her.”
“When she was born, I was the first one to hold my baby,” he said. “Her first word was ‘Dada.’ Eight months, she was already babbling ‘Dada.’ Every day I would go to work she would cry.”
Blunt asked for prayer.
“It hit the family so hard," he said. "That was our only baby. It took years to make that baby. That was our blessing. That was my blessing.”
Follow Sarah Fowler on Twitter: @FowlerSarah
Note: Map updates as new deaths occur
Source: Jan Null, San Jose (Calif.) State University
