A 9-year-old girl died on 1 July after spending about eight hours inside a white Toyota Camry parked outside the United States Gypsum plant in Galena Park, a Houston suburb. Investigators said the child’s 36-year-old mother began a scheduled 6 a.m.–2 p.m. shift and left her daughter in the back seat with a bottle of water, partially opened windows and a sunshade in the front windshield, while air temperatures climbed to roughly 93–97 °F (34–36 °C). Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters the mother discovered the girl unresponsive at about 2 p.m. and called emergency services; the child was pronounced dead at a hospital. Deputies detained and questioned the mother but later released her while they await autopsy results and review surveillance footage from the employee parking lot. Prosecutors will decide whether to file charges once the medical examiner’s findings are complete. Texas law bars leaving a child under seven unattended in a vehicle for more than five minutes, and officials stressed that interior temperatures can rise far higher than outside readings within minutes. The incident is the third child hot-car fatality reported in Texas within four days and the at least 13th nationwide this year, according to the advocacy group Kids and Car Safety.