Mother to spend 20 years in prison after leaving 13-month-old son to death inside hot car to go 'dumpster diving'

A mother was sentenced to 20 years in prison after leaving her 13-month-old son to die inside a hot car.

PEOPLE Magazine reported that Elizabeth Anne Case, 39, from Alabama pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge last March. She received four years in prison with 150 days credit for time already spent behind bars.

She was originally charged with capital murder but was dropped in place of reckless manslaughter and aggravated child abuse charges.

According to investigators, on the night of Oct. 4, 2019, Case put her son in the front seat of her car as she went dumpster diving around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.

She returned home around 5:40 a.m. and went inside to sleep—leaving her son in the car for about eight hours. The temperatures outside were reportedly 97F (37C).

Case didn’t check on her son until 1:30 p.m. the next afternoon after her grandmother asked where the boy was.

They then discovered him inside the car, with the mother bathing him and the grandmother calling 911.

The boy’s aunt also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Case and the state’s Department of Human Resources.

The aunt accused the department of not taking appropriate action in the incident and leaving the boy in his mother’s custody—despite her being in and out of jail while she was pregnant.