KEARNS — A fence surrounds the property, apparently to keep children from running into the street or wandering off while playing outside.
A swing with a safety latch hangs from a tree. A play fort stands in the backyard. All are signs of a house where the parents have seemingly taken great care to keep their children safe.
But the yard, the swing and the fort stood vacant Tuesday as a family and a neighborhood mourned an 18-month-old boy who was accidentally left in a car seat inside a hot vehicle with the windows rolled up and died of apparent hyperthermia.
Salt Lake County sheriff's investigators were waiting for a final autopsy report Tuesday on young Myles Gailey but said there were no signs of foul play or traumatic injury.
Authorities, friends and family members say the boy's mother, father and three siblings, ages 10, 7 and 4, were devastated over the tragedy.
Friends and some family members gathered in front of the house Tuesday wanting the public to know what happened was nothing more than a terrible accident by a woman who loved her children and did her best to protect them.
"She was the best mother there was. She's a wonderful mother," said one neighbor. "It's hard on the whole neighborhood. We love her so much."
The family's supporters didn't want to give their names, saying they wanted to avoid bringing attention to the situation. They were also worried about sensationalized media reports criticizing the family. They said the mother is struggling and the blame she puts on herself is enough.
"I think that people who think they've never made a mistake ought to look at themselves. Who in raising their children hasn't ever made a mistake? It was a terrible accident and that's all it was," said one woman.
Sheriff's Lt. Paul Jaroscak concurred the mother was "absolutely devastated" over the incident. The family was reportedly making plans to stay at another location Tuesday to avoid further media attention.
Detectives were called to the house, near 5300 West and 5300 South, about 4 p.m. Monday. The mother told authorities she had just gotten home, unloaded groceries from her car and forgot about her son.
The boy's father was out of town Monday but returned Tuesday.
No arrests have been made in connection with the incident. Jaroscak said once all the evidence in the case is collected it will be turned over to the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office to determine if any charges are warranted.
The case is a tragic reminder about the dangers of leaving children in vehicles, according to medical professionals.
Dr. Charles Pruitt, an emergency medicine physician at Primary Children's Medical Center, said whether the windows are rolled up or not, a child should never be left alone in a vehicle.
"I, unfortunately, see heat-related injuries and deaths every year," he said. "The temperature in a car can rise very rapidly, within minutes. The temperature can be dangerous in a closed vehicle no matter what month of the year."
Pruitt's specialty is water-related injuries. He said that just as with accidents involving swimming pools, tubs, lakes or streams, the most common excuse he hears from parents who leave their children in the car is they simply forgot or lost track of time.
"The parents or caregiver will often leave a car to run an errand expecting to only be a few minutes. But usually something else occurs and the caregiver gets distracted," he said. "What I hear far too often: 'I was only gone for a few minutes.' Supervision is really one of the most important elements of injury prevention.
"We need constant vigilance on parents' parts, and efforts by doctors and media to remind parents. It is never safe to leave a child alone in a car or around water. Supervision is the key."
Pruitt said it's not safe to leave children alone in a vehicle even if all the windows are rolled down. Carbon monoxide poisoning or other unforeseen accidents might happen, he said.
It would take just minutes for an infant in a small vehicle with the windows rolled up in the summer to suffer heatstroke.
"It's a recipe for disaster," he said.
Since 1998 there have been seven such deaths in Utah. Five of those deaths came in a horrific incident in 1998 when five children who were playing in a vehicle accidentally locked themselves in the trunk on a hot August day.
Nationally, Monday's tragedy was the fourth death of a child left in a hot car this year, according to Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University who has done extensive research on hyperthermia deaths of children in vehicles.
With Monday's temperature in Salt Lake City in the high 70s, Null said that would have put the temperature inside the vehicle somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 degrees.
Last year, there were 35 recorded hyperthermia deaths of children left in vehicles across the country, according to Null. The leading excuse of parents or caregivers, according to the study, was that they forgot about their children. In 33 percent of fatal hyperthermia car cases involving children since 1998, the victim was less than 1 year old.
Prior to Monday's tragedy, Utah had not had a fatal car hyperthermia case of a child in at least the past five years, the study said.
There have, however, been close calls.
Last July, a mother left her 7-week-old and 2-year-old girls in the car parked on Main Street in Moab while she shopped. The temperature inside the car that day was estimated to be 170 degrees. The girls were taken to a local hospital and later released.
There have been many more cases in Utah since then of pets being locked in hot cars, including two incidents since 2000 of police K9s dying after being left in service vehicles.
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com