The Moment Before Cops Save Helpless Toddlers Baking to Death in a Car | Crime Alert 1PM 07.10.25

Two toddlers are rescued from a car in suburban Atlanta as police break a window to free them from 117-degree heat, and a man is now charged with child cruelty for leaving them there. A Utah judge sets a September execution date for a 67-year-old man with dementia, nearly four decades after he kidnapped and murdered a young mother in Salt Lake County. Drew Nelson reports.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime a large hourly update breaking crime thews Now. I'm
Drew Nelson. Two toddlers are rescued from a car in
suburban Atlanta as police break a window to free them
from one hundred and seventeen degree heat, and a man
is now charged with child cruelty for leaving them there.
Cobb County Police responded to a nine to one one
call in the Cumberland Paul marking lot in Marietta, Georgia.
Officers arrived minutes later and found a young boy and

(00:23):
girl locked inside a parked vehicle. They're locked in the car.
The little boy, honey, it's okay. Hey, Hey, you're okay,
You're okay. The little girl looks maybe about a year,
and the little boy looks maybe about two. Hey kitties, Hey, oh,

(00:46):
four or four centers of the car. Hey buddy, it's okay.
Both children appeared dazed and soaked in sweat. They were
taken inside to cool off and checked by medics. Police said,
thankfully they did not need to be hospitalized. A handheld
thermometer recorded the temperature inside the car as one hundred
and seventeen degrees fahrenheit. The temperature outside that day was

(01:08):
eighty seven. Based on surveillance video time stamps, investigators determined
that the children had been left alone for forty one minutes.
About thirty minutes after the rescue, twenty year old Jaquan
Dixon returned to the vehicle. Police arrested him there. He
was charged with two counts of second degree cruelty to children.
An arrest warrant states Dixon quote with criminal negligence caused

(01:29):
a child under the age of eighteen cruel or excessive
physical or mental pain. Dixon, from Snellville, Georgia, posted a
ten thousand dollars bond the next day and was released
from Cobb County Jail. Called police later thanked the bystander
who made the nine to one to one call. The
department wrote in the caption from the bodycam quote, you
saw something and did something and that made all the difference.

(01:50):
The children's current custody status has not been released. The
case remains under investigation. More crime and Justice news After this,
A Utah judge sets a September execution date for a
sixty seven year old man with dementia, nearly four decades

(02:11):
after he kidnapped and murdered a young mother in Salt
Lake County. On Wednesday, Judge Matthew Bates signed a death
warrant for Ralph Leroy Menzies, scheduling his execution for September fifth.
Menzies chose to die by firing squad. He was sentenced
to death in nineteen eighty eight for the murder of
twenty six year old Maureen Huntsaker. She was taken from
a gas station where she worked, tied to a tree

(02:32):
in Big Cottonwood Canyon, strangled and had her throat slit.
Menzie's lawyers say he now suffers from worsening dementia, uses
a wheelchair, needs oxygen, and no longer understands what's happening.
They filed a new appeal and asked the judge to
delay the execution again. Judge Baits denied the request, but
agreed to hold a hearing again on the twenty third
to examine Menzie's mental state. He said he could issue

(02:55):
a stay if the court finds him incompetent. Matt Huntsaker,
Maureen's son, asked the court to sign the death warrant. Quote,
you issue the warrant today, you start a process for
our family. It puts everybody on the clock. We've now
introduced another generation of my mom, and we still don't
have justice served. Marine was abducted on February twenty third
of nineteen eighty six. That night, she called her husband

(03:18):
and said she'd been kidnapped. Her body was found two
days later by a hiker. She had been strangled and
her neck was slashed. Menzies was arrested the next day
on unrelated burglary charges, but he had her wallet and
other belongings. Later, her purse and money from the gas
station were found in his home. In nineteen eighty eight,
Menzies was convicted of aggravated murder and kidnapping. His execution

(03:39):
was delayed many times due to appeals, this being his
third death warrant. The first two, issued in nineteen eighty
eight and two thousand and three, both stayed. In June,
Judge Bates ruled that Menzies still quote consistently and rationally
understands why he is being executed. He said signs of
mental decline did not meet the legal standard to stop
the sentence. Six year old Michael Mayfield and his five

(04:02):
year old sister Pamela were walking home from Betsy Ross
Elementary School in Houston, Texas, January tenth of nineteen eighty five.
They were both in kindergarten. That afternoon, witnesses saw the
two children get into a green vehicle near the twenty
nine hundred block of Bay Street, close to the eastex Freeway.
They never made it home and were never seen again.
Michael and Pamela lived with their maternal grandmother on Deshome Street.

(04:25):
She had raised them both since birth. Their parents were separated,
not divorced, and both remained in their lives. The children
also visited their mother and her boyfriend and their father
and his girlfriend on a regular basis. According to investigators,
the family was loving. Police found no signs of abuse.
Four months after the children disappeared, police received a strange
phone call. An elderly sounding man claimed Michael and Pamela

(04:48):
were not abducted. He said they were staying with their
paternal grandmother on seventy fifth Street in Los Angeles, California.
The family did have relatives in Los Angeles, but none
knew where the children were. The caller was never identified.
The least believed the children may have known their abductor.
Both had been taught not to go with strangers. Still
a full background check on every relative and close family

(05:10):
friend turned up nothing. Siblings were black. Michael had black hair,
brown eyes, and a burn scar on his right wrist.
He was three feet tall, seventy five pounds. He had
a stutter. Pamela had brown hair, brown eyes, pierced ears,
and was two foot nine. She was about fifty pounds.
Michael would be forty seven today, Pamela would be forty six.
Anyone with information should contact Houston Police at seven one

(05:32):
three two two two thirty one thirty one. For the
latest crime and justice news. Follow Crime Alert's hourly update
on your favorite podcast app with this Crime Alert. I'm
Drew Nelson.