The Details From Justin Harris’ Hot Car Death Hearing Are Beyond Disturbing

I started following the story of the 22-month-old boy who died in a hot car immediately. Two hot car deaths had happened that week, and the other one took place in the city where I now live – Orlando. Immediately, I felt awful for both of these fathers. It’s easy to project your own love for your children onto other parents – thinking that they must feel the same way about their children. If what is being alleged is true, Justin Ross Harris, whose son died in a hot car two weeks ago, is a monster. The hearing is being live-blogged right now, and it is almost impossible to bear.

Harris claims he forgot his son Cooper in the backseat of his car when he went to work on Jun 18. He was supposed to drop him off at daycare. Instead, he remained strapped in the backseat of the car in 100-degree weather. All day.

Harris is currently behind bars. He is facing charges of second-degree cruelty to a child and felony murder. He has pleaded not guilty. His hearing is happening right now, where a judge will decide if there is enough evidence to hand the case over to a grand jury which will then decide whether or not to return an indictment against Harris. The hearing chronicles the events that happened the day the boy died, including stopping at Chik-fil-A and subsequently driving right by the place Harris would normally turn to drop his son off at daycare.

As the hearing unfolds, the allegations of what happened that day and the days surrounding the event become more and more disturbing; surveillance footage shows harris returning to his car to drop off light bulbs. He also received an email from Cooper’s teacher at 1:30. If those items weren’t disturbing enough, Harris was allegedly sexting with up to six women – one of them a 16-year-old girl – during the time his son lay dead in the back seat of a hot car:

During the day, Harris was having conversations with up to six different women, according to Stoddard, who said explicit photos were being exchanged.

”We’ve only scratched the surface,” said Stoddard in regards to the searches done on Harris’ computers.

2:16 p.m. ET: One of the girls he was texting with asked him, ”Do you have a conscience?” and he responded, ”Nope.”

Other disturbing elements surface, including that the couple had taken out a life insurance policy on their young son:

2:17 p.m. ET: The couple had a $2,000 and a $25,000 life insurance policy on their son. Harris’ wife ”was complaining about his purchasing, sporadic purchasing or overcharging credit cards.”

2:20 p.m. ET: Harris visited a subreddit about ”people who die,” which shows videos of people dying (suicide, executions, war, etc.)

2:28 p.m. ET: The child was likely dead before noon, according to Stoddard. The defense has begun it’s cross-examination of the detective.

I always default to feeling unbearably terrible for parents when something like this happens. I guess I just don’t want to believe that such a monster exists. If all of these allegations are true – Harris is that monster.

That poor child.