Mom, 39, Sentenced to 7 Years: Her 3-Year-Old Daughter Was Dying for 5 Hours While She Was Watching TV Series

An Australian woman was given jail time for the murder of her baby girl, whom she left locked up in a car during a heatwave. The judge sentenced her to almost ten years in prison but also noted that she required treatment for her possible mental health issues.

Laura Rose Peverill was sentenced to seven years in prison on October 6, 2023, for her daughter's death. She'll be eligible for parole in less than two years, on July 3, 2025. The tragic incident occurred on November 27, 2020, when Rylee Rose Black, three years old, passed away after being left unattended and locked inside a Toyota Prado.

A May 2022 court appearance revealed that Rylee Rose Black's mother and her then-boyfriend of a few months, Aaron Hill, 32, abandoned her. The former couple drove to the supermarket after dropping off her three other daughters at school.

At around 9.50 a.m., the pair returned the car to Laura's home's driveway before collecting groceries and leaving the little girl buckled up in the backseat. The duo then went inside the Burdell home to binge-watch "Shameless" on Netflix while the little girl sat in the vehicle for over five hours in the middle of the day.

During her Supreme Court appearance in 2023, the prosecutor, David Nardone, said in his closing argument that the temperature inside the car reached the unsurvivable heatwave of 51.5° Celsius. Nardone noted how little Rylee would have eventually gone into a coma before she died because of the heat.

In April 2023, the woman who lived in the North of Queensland pleaded guilty to manslaughter, with her defense lawyer, Victoria Trafford-Walker, pleading her case. Trafford-Walker said her client is badly affected by losing her child despite failing to show care on that fateful day.

The Townsville mother allegedly didn't intend to harm her toddler in any way and has since been threatened by social media users who've sent her death threats and 200 abusive messages. The attorney claimed Laura, who apologized for her actions, is remorseful and suffers mental health issues, but some reports from authorities could've made her case worse.

Laura's Reported Online Search History before Rylee's Death

Police alleged Laura had Googled "whether she would go to jail for leaving a child in a car" a day before her daughter's incident, but Trafford-Walker disputed the statement, saying the search was done "on a different day." The parent said she loves Rylee in an "indescribable" way, with Justice David North describing her actions as such:

"It was an offense by way of omission."

The judge noted that Rylee's mother, who had revealed that she was also addicted to illegal substances and had mental illness, required treatment due to the tragic loss. North also recommended that the 39-year-old woman be held in protective custody.

Three people formed a team to give him added financial support and created a GoFundMe account to benefit Rylee's father.

Peter Black, Rylee's father, got to read a victim impact statement about his late daughter. He described her as his "bubbly" and "happy princess" and recalled feeling like the world had stopped turning when he received that heartbreaking call, and at her funeral, he confessed:

"I would have moved mountains if I had been there."

In 2021, Peter revealed how he wished to prevent such deaths from abandonment again by calling for the compulsory installation of child detection software in all new vehicles. That year, he also admitted to still having "nightmares" over his daughter's death.

His parliamentary petition had reached almost 1,500 signatures by December 21, 2021, and was open until the 29th. Two days after Valentine's Day, Rylee's father posted a FaceTime phone call screen of him talking to his daughter.

In the post's caption, the heartbroken parent said he wished his daughter could pick up the phone again and FaceTime with him. Peter also confessed that he missed his "beautiful girl" a lot.

Three people formed a team to give him added financial support and created a GoFundMe account to benefit Rylee's father. The trio revealed the little girl left behind her father and three older sisters, and the funds collected would help her family through the tragic time.

The team was trying to reach a goal of 15,000 Australian dollars for the account opened on November 29, 2020. So far, over 160 people have donated more than two-thirds of the actual objective with over $11,000 in the funds.