Deadbeat Arizona Dad Who Let Toddler Die in Hot Car Exposed for History of Abuse by Teenage Daughter After Criminal's Shocking Suicide

The eldest daughter of Christopher Scholtes, 38, who let his 2-year-old daughter bake to death in a hot car in 2024, has exposed him for routinely locking his children in parked cars for more than a decade.

In an abuse lawsuit filed on Tuesday, October 28, it was revealed that Scholtes' 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage alleged that the Arizona dad had also left her in his locked car when she was little.

"The first time he did it [left a child in a hot car] was with me when I was younger than 7," she told Chorus Nylander of News 4 Tuscon following the death of her half-sister Parker last year.

News of the lawsuit has come to light just after it was announced that Scholtes had died by suicide on Tuesday, November 4, one day before he was due to appear in court so he could be taken into custody.

Scholtes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Pima County Court in October and was slated to serve 30 years for leaving Parker in his car for three hours on a 109-degree day in Tucson in July 2024.

Scholtes was reportedly watching p---, playing video games and drinking beer inside as she succumbed to the sweltering heat. He claimed to have simply forgotten her.

The lawsuit — which was filed on the teenager's behalf by her former guardian Lindsay Eisenberg — not only accuses the father, but his wife, Erika, of "emotional distress, assault, battery, and fraud."

The 17-year-old's biological mother passed away last year, leading Eisenberg, the mother-of-one of the teenager's friends, to care for her.

Eisenberg stated the teenager "has suffered immensely from Christopher and Erika."

"She [the daughter] hopes they would put him in prison and lose the key," she added.

The lawsuit alleges that the daughter was subject to routine abuse between September 2016 and March 2021.

It states, "[Scholtes] intentionally caused Plaintiff to fear imminent harm and made harmful and offensive physical contact."

The unnamed minor said, "It genuinely has changed me as a person, I will never be the same person I was before."

Arizona Department of Child Safety records reveal she made nine complaints from June 2014 to December 2020, though they were unsubstantiated.

Following Parker's death, the father's two younger daughters told investigators he would also regularly leave them in the locked car.