The Mohave County, Arizona, Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of a girl earlier this month after her parents took her boating in 120-degree heat.
The 4-month-old baby fell unconscious shortly after 5 p.m. on July 5 while on a boat on Lake Havasu, a reservoir located along the state line between Mohave County and San Bernardino County in California, the department said in a statement.
The baby was taken to Havasu Regional Medical Center in Lake Havasu City for treatment of heat-related illness and was pronounced dead after being transferred to Phoenix Children's Hospital, the department said.
Mohave sheriff's officials did not name the parents or the child, but a GoFundMe Account identified the mother as Alyssa Wroblewski and the girl as Tanna Rae.
The baby's father, identified by the “Today is the show Matthew is believed to be a law enforcement officer in the Inland Empire. State records indicate he is a police detective.
Alyssa Wroblewski did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The infant's death occurred in the middle of a excessive heat warning in Mohave County. Temperatures around Lake Havasu typically reach triple digits in the summer and reached 120 degrees on July 5, according to data from the National Weather Service.
Last year, more than 4,426 people went to emergency rooms in the state for heat-related illnesses, including 215 people in Mohave County, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The recent heat wave also claimed the life of a 2-year-old girl in Marana, Arizona, southeast of Phoenix, after her father left her sleeping in a car with the air conditioning on while he ran inside the house, according to the Marana Police Department. The vehicle, police said, stopped working at some point.
The Wroblewskis' GoFundMe post said they were enjoying a day at the lake when Tanna lost consciousness. Her parents attempted to resuscitate her before a crew from the Lake Havasu City Fire Department arrived.
“Our precious little girl gave us her last smile and we gave her our last kisses,” the post read. “We will never understand why you had to go so soon, you were too perfect.”
The GoFundMe account included photos of the family, including one of baby Tanna smiling broadly and dressed in a monster truck onesie with a bow on her head.
Shortly after the girl's death, Alyssa Wroblewski posted a tribute to her on Facebook, according to the “Today” show.
“These are the last pictures I took of you before you left us,” Wroblewski wrote in the July 8 post. “Your smile radiated joy… I never thought there would be a day in my life without you.”
Wroblewski said the family was struggling to make sense of what happened that day.
Her July 8 post has since been made private or deleted. Some Facebook users had criticized Wroblewski and her husband for taking the baby boating in such high temperatures, according to KSLA News 12.
