Linda Charlene Stevens went to her job as usual on April 15, 2026. The 69-year-old walked into work at the Monterey Public Library in Baxter, Tennessee, at 8 a.m. Her day seemed just fine until she received a phone call at 4 p.m. that changed the lives of several people in an instant. That morning, Stevens’ daughter asked her to drop off her foster son at day care on her way to work. Stevens reportedly agreed but apparently forgot. You can only imagine what happened next.
First responders tried to revive the baby.
Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris told WKRN that first responders arrived on the scene around 4 p.m. and found 7-month-old Gabriel Alonzo unresponsive in Stevens’ car. They desperately tried to revive him. Sadly, their efforts were unsuccessful.
“It’s very hard. I don’t think no one meant for this to happen,” Farris told the news outlet.
Putnam County is not far from Nashville, and temperatures are nowhere near what they’ll be this summer.
“We haven’t even got into summer yet, and I’m sure I will be not the only one — law enforcement… the chief of law enforcement — that has these interviews throughout the summer, and so we don’t need that to happen,” Farris explained. “It’s really sad. We all need to pay attention, and, for no reason, it’s not okay to leave a child in the car anytime for any length of time. Bad things happen when you do that.”
It appears Stevens forgot about Gabriel.
According to a news release from District Attorney Bryan C. Dunaway, Stevens reportedly buckled Gabriel in his car seat that morning and drove off with the intention of taking him to day care. Nearly eight hours later, a family member contacted Stevens about the baby’s whereabouts, and that’s when she made the gruesome discovery. Nine days after Gabriel’s death, police arrested Stevens, who faces charges of criminally negligent homicide.
Some fear Stevens might have some memory issues.
We may never know the truth about what happened that day, but plenty of people want to speculate.
“Did she have alzheimers?” someone asked in the Facebook comment section.
“I’m wondering if that or dementia. Which makes you wonder just a sad situation,” someone else guessed.
Others couldn’t quite understand how Gabriel sat in Stevens’ car for so many hours.
“Soooo maybe I’m confused.. but the mother allowed the grandmother to drop the child off at daycare right?” someone asked.
“Why didn’t the mom ever call the grandmother to check and see how drop off went? It’s just a question.. I’m probably to[o] much of a helicopter parent,” a commenter pointed out.
We have to agree with this one. If the baby didn’t show up at day care, doesn’t someone reach out to the family? We aren’t pointing any fingers or placing blame, but this seems like a failure of several systems. It’s tragic no matter how you look at it.
