Published: October 13, 2008 10:46 am         

NEWS UPDATE: Family, community deal with tragedy

Funeral services conducted for 2 1/2-year-old boy

Funeral services were scheduled Monday afternoon for a 2 1/2-year-old boy who was found dead Friday in an SUV.

A grand jury met Monday morning to consider charges against the boy's grandmother, who apparently left him strapped in a car seat in her SUV for nearly nine hours after she went to work Friday morning.

Services for Zachary Madison Nose were scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Monday at Bowling Funeral Home. Visitation was scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. at the funeral home.

The boy was found in an East Sixth Street parking lot commonly used by Saint Joseph-London staff. Walker said his grandmother, Linda Long, is an employee at the hospital.

London Police Lt. Stewart Walker said Long was apparently driving to work and “doesn’t normally drive the child.”

Walker said Long found the boy in the car about 4:45 p.m.

Long was booked into custody on a charge of reckless homicide, Walker said. According to detention center records, she was release just before noon Saturday. A grand jury met Monday morning to consider charges.

Bowling said cause of death is hyperthermia — defined as the overheating of the body.

Laurel County Coroner Doug Bowling said he was not certain as to when the child died, but estimated it was sometime around noon.

The boy is believed to have been left in the car at 8 a.m. He was not found until 4:45 p.m.

According to National Weather Service meteorologlist Pete Geogerian, the temperature in the SUV could have climbed to more than 100 degrees by noon Friday.

eogerian said the noon temperature at London-Corbin Airport was 72 degrees. He said a vehicle sitting in the sun with the windows up would quickly surpass 100 degrees.

Nose was pronounced dead around 4:45 p.m.

The incident is being investigated by the Major Crimes Task Force and London City Police Department.