A doctor’s husband who left his two year-old daughter to die in a hot car while he played video games is still with his wife – and now they’re in Hawaii.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, is charged with the first-degree murder of two year-old Parker in Marana, Arizona, last July after leaving her to nap in 190F heat.
But a court has just given him permission to go on vacation to Maui with his doctor wife Erika and the couple’s two surviving daughters.
News of the court order, first reported by KOLD, shows the couple’s marriage has remained intact despite a horrific tragedy prosecutors say was homicide.
Scholtes left his Acura running with the air-conditioning on, but allegedly lost track of time while he played on his PlayStation and the vehicle shut off.
The father, who faces a possible death sentence after refusing a plea deal last month, has been on bail since soon after his arrest, and applied to go on holiday.
His lawyers petitioned the court for a change in his bail conditions to allow the holiday to Maui on May 1 to 9, despite the charges against him.
Erika Scholtes has stood by her husband and even strongly defended him in court by calling their daughter’s death ‘a mistake’.
Christopher Scholtes, 37, was allowed to take a Hawaiian family holiday with his wife Erika and two surviving daughters despite being on bail for allegedly murdering his youngest child
Parker Scholtes, 2, died in a hot car in front of her home after she was left there for three hours in 190F heat
Judge Kimberly Ortiz approved the request, over the strenuous objections of prosecutors, under the proviso he stayed in contact with pretrial services while outside Arizona.
‘The defendant shall further have no unsupervised contact with children,’ the order added.
Local TV station 13 News found no one home at the Scholtes house this week and a nanny watching the family dogs.
Erika and Scholtes took frequent holidays in the year before Parker died – posting about their adventures on social media.
They went skiing in Banff last February, with their older daughters in tow, and took a beach holiday to Cancun last March with the whole family.
The couple also traveled through Europe last June, Seattle in October 2023, and Sedona in June 2023, just the two of them.
Shame-faced Scholtes in court last year, where the charges against him were escalated from second-degree to first-degree murder. He later rejected a plea deal that would reduce it again
Scholtes’ two other children, aged nine and five, told police that Scholtes had left all three siblings alone in the vehicle regularly
Scholtes was to face a 10-day trial on September 15, but it was pushed back to October.
He rejected a plea deal that would have dropped his charges down to second-degree murder with a maximum of 25 years in prison.
Instead, he faces life behind bars or potential execution if convicted.
Scholtes told police he left Parker in her car seat inside the vehicle with the engine running and air-conditioning on because he did not want to wake her up.
He claimed she was there less than an hour after they arrived home, but CCTV footage revealed it was more than three hours in direct sunlight.
He allegedly knew the car would automatically shut off after about 30 minutes, based on previous experience.
Scholtes’ other two daughters, aged 9 and 5 at the time, said their father habitually left all three kids unattended in the vehicle.
Scholtes, 37, was charged with murder after leaving his two-year-old daughter (pictured together as a newborn) in the back of a hot car in 109F heat while he was inside their house
Erika Scholtes, 35, worked as an anesthesiologist at the same hospital her daughter was rushed to on Tuesday
Police outside the house in Marana, north of Tucson, Arizona, on Tuesday evening as they investigated the scene. Parker was left in the blue Honda Acura SUV behind the police tape
On the day Parker died, they told cops their dad, ‘got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away’, according to the criminal complaint.
The cameras also showed Scholtes never went outside to check on Parker until his wife arrived home and asked where she was, police alleged.
Erika, an anesthesiologist at the hospital where Parker was declared dead, arrived home at 4.08pm and asked where her daughter was, then found her in the car.
She performed CPR on Parker until paramedics arrived and rushed her to Banner University Medical Center Tucson.
As Parker was rushed to the hospital, Erika texted Scholtes saying: ‘I told you to stop leaving them in the car, how many times have I told you.’
She later added: ‘We’ve lost her, she was perfect.’
Scholtes replied: ‘Babe I’m sorry! How could I do this. I killed our baby, this can’t be real.’
The disgraced dad traveled with his wife Erika Scholtes, who has stood by him and even strongly defended him in court, and their two surviving daughters
During his first court hearing, Erika called in to offer her support for her husband and called Parker’s death ‘a big mistake’.
‘This was a big mistake and I think that this doesn’t represent him,’ she said.
Shocking police body cam footage captured the moment first responders frantically tried to save Parker after arriving at the house.
Police and paramedics desperately attempted to revive the toddler as Scholtes paced around his house in a panic.
