A 10-month-old girl named Scottie Crowell is dead in Madisonville, Kentucky, after police said a routine morning caregiving plan went catastrophically wrong.
Her grandmother was reportedly supposed to take Scottie to daycare before heading to work at a local healthcare facility. Police said that drop-off never happened. Instead, she drove directly to work, with the baby still inside the vehicle. The mistake went unnoticed for hours, while Scottie’s parents believed their daughter was safely at daycare.
The first sign that something was wrong came that afternoon, when Scottie’s father arrived to pick her up and learned she had never been dropped off. What followed was a frantic series of calls, a rush to the parking lot, and an emergency response that could not save her.
Police are now piecing together exactly what happened that morning. No charges had been filed, and several findings that could shape what happens next were still pending.
A Morning Plan That Didn’t Hold
The arrangement described is one that countless families depend on every weekday: a grandparent handles the morning pickup, takes the child to daycare, and heads to work. On Aug. 13, police said that sequence broke down entirely.
According to Kentucky New Era, Investigators identified the grandmother as Dr. Stacey Fazenbaker, a physician at Owensboro Health Multicare on South Main Street in Madisonville. She picked Scottie up from the child’s mother that morning with a clear plan: daycare first, then work.
Instead, investigators said Fazenbaker drove directly to Multicare at around 8 a.m. and began her shift. Scottie remained inside the vehicle in the facility’s front parking lot.
The baby was there for approximately eight hours.
Investigators have not publicly explained why the daycare stop never happened. Police had not identified a specific distraction, interruption, or other event that caused Fazenbaker to deviate from the morning plan.
The Moment the Family Found Out
Scottie’s father had no way of knowing anything had gone wrong — until he showed up at daycare to collect his daughter and staff told him she had never arrived.
People reports that he called his wife. She then called Fazenbaker, her mother.
Major Jason McKnight of the Madisonville Police Department described what happened next: Fazenbaker ran outside with coworkers toward the vehicle.
“But it was far too late by then,” McKnight said.
Police and firefighters arrived in Multicare’s front parking lot at about 4:30 p.m. First responders attempted CPR and other lifesaving measures after reaching Scottie.
They could not save her. Until that afternoon pickup, the breakdown in the family’s childcare handoff had apparently gone undiscovered. Scottie’s father believed she had spent the day at daycare, but she never even made it through the doors.
She was 10 months old.
What Investigators Are Still Trying to Determine
The death triggered a formal police inquiry, with Kentucky Child Protective Services working alongside detectives from the start — but the findings that matter most were still outstanding.
Save this article
Enter your email address and we'll send it straight to your inbox.
McKnight described CPS’s role as walking “hand in hand with our detectives while the investigation was ongoing and [during] the interviews.”
Fazenbaker also reportedly consented to a blood draw, which investigators sent to a state laboratory. Police said they did not expect the test to show impairment, but wanted to rule it out.
“We’re not exactly expecting anything with that,” McKnight said, “but just to make sure, just to clear it off the table.”
An autopsy had already been completed, though the official findings were not yet available. McKnight said those results could take several weeks.
Investigators had not filed charges while they continued gathering information.
“We’re getting a little bit more information together,” McKnight said to People, “before we go straight to the charges that might be appropriate.”
Police expected to present the completed case to a grand jury, leaving the legal outcome unresolved while detectives waited for the remaining evidence.
A Loss That Reached Beyond One Family
No public explanation exists for how a planned daycare drop-off went undone that morning, with these consequences.
Scottie’s death also became part of a broader toll involving children left in hot vehicles. According to Kids and Car Safety, a child safety organization, she was the 20th hot-car-related child fatality of 2026 and the first in the tri-state region since 2019.
Police said they had not identified any prior similar incident involving Fazenbaker.
As word of Scottie’s death spread, more relatives arrived at the scene outside Multicare. McKnight said the impact extended beyond the immediate family.
“Anybody who loses a child obviously is going to be very upset, and this is no different,” McKnight said. “For this community, it’s a pretty big deal.”
The investigation now hinges on findings that were not immediately available, including the final autopsy and blood-test results. Those answers could help determine what prosecutors do with a case that began with an ordinary family routine and ended with a child’s death.
When childcare depends on multiple family members covering different parts of a child’s day, what do you think families can do to make sure a handoff like a daycare drop-off never falls through the cracks?
Related Articles:
- Three Charged After 3-Month-Old Dies of Dehydration and Malnutrition in Fort Pierce Home.
- 4-Year-Old Dies After Being Electrocuted by Clothes Dryer While Playing at Home
- Florida Toddler Dies After Becoming Trapped in Play Kitchen at Babysitter’s Home, Police Say
- Brave Georgia Teacher and Dad Dies Saving a Girl From a Myrtle Beach Rip Current
