The Arizona dad who killed himself to dodge decades in prison for leaving his 2-year-old daughter to die in a hot car took his life with a haunting echo of his heinous crime — suffocating himself in his vehicle.
Christopher Scholtes, 38, was found dead in the garage of the Phoenix home he shared with his wife, Dr. Erika Scholtes, around 5 a.m. on Nov. 5, hours after he killed himself the night before.
Exactly how he died has yet to be confirmed, but he is believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner told the Daily Mail.
The death was previously confirmed as a suicide by police and Arizona prosecutors, while family said the car he died in was not the same vehicle in which his little daughter, Parker, died.
Scholtes’ death is shockingly similar to how his daughter slowly baked to death in his car after he left her in their driveway for more than three hours on a hot summer day in 2024.
The deadbeat dad had been inside the house watching porn, drinking beer and playing video games at the time of her death.
Scholtes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October and was expected to spend up to 30 years in prison.
His prison term was due to begin on Nov. 5 — but he killed himself the day before, dodging justice over the tot’s death.
“This little girl’s voice was nearly silenced because justice was not served appropriately this morning,” Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said in a statement after his death.
Scholtes left behind a wife and three other daughters.
Temperatures soared to a scorching 109 degrees under the desert sun as Parker died trapped in the family car that July day.
Her body was found by her horrified mother when she came home — with Scholtes trying to tell responding police that he’d left her in the vehicle for no more than 45 minutes.
But he also conceded that he knew the car’s engine and air conditioner would automatically turn off after 30 minutes unattended.
And he was apparently in a position to know that fact — as leaving his kids in the car was allegedly alarmingly common behavior on his part.
Scholtes’ eldest daughter, a 17-year-old from a previous marriage, alleged that he was leaving her unattended in cars for hours at a time beginning when she was “younger than 7” in an explosive lawsuit filed days before his death.
That means Scholtes had been leaving his kids in cars for more than a decade before the behavior finally killed little Parker.
His other kids also told investigators that he regularly left them unattended in his car while he went inside the house.
Scholtes’ own wife even raged at him for his behavior after Parker died – telling him “I told you to stop leaving them in the car” in a text after the tragedy.
“How many times have I told you?” she said.
“Babe, I’m sorry,” Scholtes replied. “Babe, our family. How could I do this? I killed our baby, this can’t be real.”
His elder daughter alleged that she was regularly neglected and even physically abused by him – and that he even falsified a conservatorship over her so he could cash in on government support checks.
“As a result, Plaintiff suffered severe emotional distress, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations, post traumatic stress, and long-term psychological harm,” her lawsuit read.

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