Woman says she places no blame on father for leaving her son in car | Philadelphia Daily News | 06/16/2008

Woman says she places no blame on father for leaving her son in car

By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News

farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225
This Father’s Day weekend, Rebecca Kanterman gave her dad the most important gift of all - forgiveness for his unintentional role in the death of her 14-month-old son.

After five sweltering hours in a car and five subsequent days on life support, Kanterman’s son, Nicholas McCorkle, died Saturday afternoon at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The ordeal began on Tuesday when Kanterman’s father, Edward Kanterman, of Lansdowne, picked up his grandson to take him to day care, as he had done so many previous mornings, said Marple Township Police Chief Thomas Murray Jr.

But that morning would turn out to be different. Instead of driving to the day-care center, Edward Kanterman, 59, drove to his job as an instructor at the CHI Institute, a trade school in the Lawrence Park Shopping Center in Broomall.

As he shut his car door and headed for work, police said, Kanterman forgot one precious piece of cargo in the back seat - his grandson.

To make matters worse, it was the third day of the region’s first heat wave of the year - a day when temperatures soared upward of 98 degrees.

About five hours passed before Kanterman went to retrieve something from his car around 1:20 p.m. and saw his unconscious grandson inside.

He immediately called police, who said temperature readings inside the car clocked in at 110 degrees. But Murray said that the child probably suffered through much higher temperatures because the readings were taken after the car doors were opened several times.

On Saturday, Rebecca Kanterman told KYW-TV that she did not blame her father.

“He’s human,” she said. “People make mistakes, and if he didn’t make mistakes he wouldn’t be human. If anyone feels the worst, it’s him.”

Marple Township Police and the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office are in the process of determining what, if any, criminal charges Edward Kanterman will face.

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