Two Arizona parents are facing serious criminal charges after their 5-year-old son was found unresponsive inside the family’s vehicle nearly three hours after they returned home from a church celebration.
Anca Sabo and Mihail Sabo were arrested in Peoria, Arizona, and booked on suspicion of negligent homicide and child abuse following the Sept. 13 tragedy, according to the Peoria Police Department and local court reporting.
Police said the family returned to their home in the northwest Phoenix suburb at around 1 p.m. after attending a baptism celebration at church.
But at approximately 3:46 p.m., family members realized the 5-year-old was missing and began searching for him.
His mother eventually found him unresponsive inside the vehicle.
Family members pulled the boy from the car and began CPR before police and firefighters arrived. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Authorities have not publicly released the child’s official cause of death, and court documents in the case have been sealed.
What happened during the nearly three-hour gap is now at the center of the criminal investigation.
Police spokesperson Officer William Kennedy said investigators believe there was confusion among family members about who was responsible for getting the boy out of the vehicle.
According to prosecutors, Anca Sabo said she asked her husband to get their son from the car while she was hosting a gathering at the home.
The family’s attorney told the court that Mihail Sabo then instructed the couple’s 14-year-old child to bring the boy inside.
However, the teenager reportedly told authorities that he did not remember being asked to do so.
The conflicting accounts are likely to become an important part of the case as prosecutors attempt to establish whether the parents’ actions amounted to criminal negligence rather than a devastating accident.
Both parents appeared in court the day after their son’s death.
Their attorney strongly disputed the criminal charges, describing what happened as a “heartbreaking accident” and emphasizing that Anca immediately called 911, attempted lifesaving measures and cooperated with detectives.
Prosecutors initially requested a $250,000 cash-only bond for Anca and asked that she have no contact with children.
The judge instead set a secured bond of $150,000 for each parent. They were ordered not to have contact with one another and may only see their four other children while supervised by the Arizona Department of Child Safety or another approved adult.
Local reporting also found no prior criminal records for either parent.
Under Arizona law, negligent homicide occurs when a person causes another person’s death through “criminal negligence.” It is classified as a Class 4 felony.
Arizona’s child-abuse law separately allows criminal charges when someone responsible for a child causes or permits the child to be placed in circumstances that endanger the child’s health or safety. When criminal negligence occurs under circumstances likely to cause death or serious injury, that offense can also be treated as a Class 4 felony.
That distinction matters in this case because prosecutors will ultimately have to prove more than simply that a terrible mistake occurred. The criminal case will focus on whether the parents’ conduct met Arizona’s legal standard for criminal negligence.
The dangers of children being left inside parked vehicles can escalate extraordinarily quickly.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warns that the temperature inside a vehicle can climb roughly 20 degrees in just 10 minutes. Children are particularly vulnerable because their bodies can heat up three to five times faster than those of adults.
NHTSA recommends that parents and caregivers make a habit of checking the entire vehicle before walking away and immediately call 911 if they see a child alone inside a car.
For now, Peoria police say the investigation remains active.
No conviction has been entered against either Anca or Mihail Sabo, and the allegations against them will have to be proven in court.
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