An Oklahoma father whose two young children died in his hot truck was released from jail on June 16, after video showed the children climbed into the truck on their own and never got out, the Tulsa District Attorney’s Office said.
Dustin Dennis, 31, was arrested Saturday after police say he took his two children, ages 3 and 4, to a convenience store around noon that day. After returning home, Dennis took a nap and said he could not find his children in the house after he woke up.
He discovered them after he checked the floorboard of the truck.
According the the National Weather Service, the temperatures were in the low 90s at the time.
Dennis told police he thought he removed his children from the truck, spokeswoman Jeanne Pierce told CNN.
“Video surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home confirmed that the children managed to get into the truck and tragically never got out,” the district attorney’s office said. “Based upon that newly discovered evidence the detectives immediately reported it to our office.”
Dennis was released from jail Monday afternoon, according to jail records.
In a statement released Tuesday, District Attorney Steve Kunzeweiler said no formal charges had been filed in the case.
Kunzeweiler said Dennis’s release does not “mean that this case is over,” and he and Pierce said the investigation is ongoing.
