Hedgesville woman accused of neglecting baby in parked vehicle

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A Hedgesville woman is accused of neglecting an 11-month old baby after the child was found unattended in a car Tuesday at Walmart in Martinsburg.

Barbara Lynn Sheerer, 62, of Apple Harvest Drive was charged with child neglect creating risk of death or serious bodily injury, according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records.

The child was found in a white Hyundai Accent parked in the rear of the parking lot at the Foxcroft Avenue store, Martinsburg Police Department Patrol Officer B.A. Jarvis wrote in a complaint.

The temperature at the time was 85 degrees, but Jarvis wrote that the heat index was higher, and all four windows of the vehicle were closed, court records said.

The child was strapped into a car seat in the back seat, records said.

The boy appeared to be hot and had "significant redness in the face," records said.

Emergency-medical personnel advised that they believed the infant was fine, but indicated that they would take the boy to a hospital as a precaution, Jarvis wrote.

Shortly after the child was placed in an ambulance, Jarvis wrote that a female walked toward the car in question, then told police that she was the infant's grandmother, guardian and sole caretaker, court records said.

"She had advised she had gone into the store to buy some clothes for her other grandchild and left the baby in the car because he was sleeping," Jarvis wrote in the complaint.

Jarvis noted that the woman said she believed she was in the store for about 15 minutes, court records said.

Jarvis said he was investigating a reported shoplifting incident at the store Tuesday at about 10:30 a.m. when a witness alerted him to the situation, records said.