Tragic Sunday church service ends with arrest of the pastor’s wife; she left her young daughter in hot car for three hours

An unfortunate incident has taken place in Florida, leading to the arrest of a mother following the death of her 11-month-old baby.

The child, sadly, had been inadvertently left unattended in a heated vehicle for an extended period of approximately three hours while her mother was conducting a church service.

The mother, Bulaine Molme, a 37-year-old resident of Florida, was taken into custody late Thursday and lodged in the Brevard County jail. She has been indicted with a severe charge, a felony count of child manslaughter.

This distressing event came to light four days after local law enforcement officials were summoned to Mount of Olives Evangelical Church in Palm Bay, an institution overseen by Molme and her husband, who serves as the pastor. They were called following reports of an unresponsive child at the location.

Upon arrival, first responders made the distressing discovery that the infant had been left in her mother’s car while the mother and other family members attended the Sunday service at the church, as detailed in a report by ClickOrlando.

From their investigation, detectives were able to ascertain that Molme had reached the church late for the service she was designated to conduct. Molme reported to the authorities that she had been under the assumption her daughter had been taken inside the church by a congregation member.

Tragically, it was only upon the conclusion of the service that Molme discovered her infant was not present inside the church. Panicked, Molme rushed to her vehicle, only to find her 11-month-old daughter still fastened in her car seat, unresponsive.

Immediate life-saving measures, including CPR, were initiated for the baby before she was transported to Palm Bay Community Hospital. Despite these efforts, the child was declared deceased at the hospital.

On the day of the incident, the peak temperature in Palm Bay reached 81 degrees. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has noted that even at a relatively mild exterior temperature of 75 degrees, the internal temperature of a car can surge to an extreme 105 degrees. Additionally, it is crucial to understand that a child’s body temperature can elevate three to five times more rapidly than an adult’s, resulting in heatstroke when the core body temperature reaches 104 degrees.

Following her arrest, Molme was granted release from jail on Friday subsequent to the posting of a $15,000 bond.

Bulaine Molme and her husband, Pastor Jnmarc Molme, both hail from Haiti originally. Together, they founded the Mount of Olives Church in September 2018, as per the records of the Florida Baptist Convention. The couple is also parents to three older children.