The Parker County Sheriff's Department is investigating the deaths of two young children, a brother and sister, found inside a locked car outside their home Friday afternoon.
"Everybody's distraught, it's just horrible," said Raymond Ramirez, a relative of the victims. "Being so young, you don't have any words."
The medical examiner identified the children as Juliet Ramirez, 2, and her brother, Cavanaugh Ramirez, 16 months.[[424687114,R]]
According to investigators, the children's mother says the two were playing inside the house on the 200 block of Rambling Loop, but when she looked for them at about 4 p.m., she couldn't find them.
"She thought maybe they were playing hide-and-seek or something," said Parker County Sheriff's Capt. Mark Arnett. "So she started searching the house. When she didn't find them, she started searching the property, and that's when she found them located in the car."
The mother said she broke a window to reach the children, who were both unresponsive, but it was too late.
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At the time, the temperature outside was hovering around 96 degrees. The children were pronounced dead at 4:33 p.m.
Now, investigators want to know how two children so young managed to climb in the car and lock it all by themselves.
Saturday, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said detectives were analyzing the car which has been impounded.
"I think that's the biggest question we're asking, and I think that's the answer that we're trying to find is how would these children be able to do that?" Arnett said.
Arnett said this will be a "lengthy" investigation.
According to investigators, the mother told them she found her two children in the car holding her cellphone and car keys.
The home is located in a rural neighborhood west of Lake Weatherford.
