The death of 22 month-old Cooper Harris started as a cautionary tale of how parents should keep an eye on their children. His father Justin Ross had told police that he forgot to drop his son off at a daycare center before proceeding to work at Home Depot that fatal day. Buzzfeed said the child has been pronounced dead at the scene, who had succumbed to temperatures in the area couple with the fact that he is in a locked car after roughly seven hours. On Wednesday, the Cobb County Medical Examiner said that Cooper had died of hyperthermia as his body temperature reached dangerously high levels.
Police, however, thought that there was more to Harris' explanation after the Georgia resident gave inconsistent answers to first responders, Cobb County Police Sergeant Dana Pierce told CNN.
In a hearing today to determine whether Harris' case should proceed to trial and whether he would be granted bail, new allegations about the 33 year-old arose in court, Buzzfeed said. According to police, Harris was texting up to six different women, including a then 16 year-old girl, while his son is dying in the car. Detective Phil Stoddard also said that Harris's search history included visits to a Reddit "child-free" page, which advocates not having children, and another page with disturbing videos and images of different deaths. Stoddard also revealed in court that Harris used "how to survive in prison" and "age of consent for Georgia" search terms.
Moreover, Stoddard revealed that aside from huffing, Harris appeared to have failed to show true emotions of a father wracked with grief.
"He started off trying to work himself up... He's walking around, rubbing his eyes. It looked like he's trying to hyperventilate himself... no tears, no real emotion coming out except for the huffing as I would put it," he said.
In what seemed to be the most damaging testimony so far in Harris case is the revelation that the father had two life insurance policies on Cooper, one for for $2,000 and another for $25,000, USA Today reported.
Harris has been charged with child cruelty and murder in his son's June 18th death. It is not known how the Cobb County views the toddler's mother, Leanna, in the case, but warrants released over the weekend showed both parents have conducted Internet searches about hot car deaths, USA Today added.
