3-year-old Havertown girl likely died in Maine from heat in car, mom charged with manslaughter, authorities say

The mother of the Havertown woman charged in Maine with manslaughter in the death of her 3-year-old daughter, who was left in a hot car for hours on Saturday, told an investigator that her daughter had been hallucinating and hearing voices telling her what to do, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.

Kelly Brown’s mother told the investigator that her daughter had been posting “disturbing” videos to Facebook that displayed behavior that had changed significantly from how she acted less than a month earlier, the affidavit said.

Two other witnesses said that they had noticed a change in Brown’s behavior, with one — a cousin — saying Brown had become “quite emotional and had been talking about Norse gods and deities,” the affidavit said.

On Saturday night, police found Fiona Brown and a small family dog dead inside Kelly Brown’s 2017 white Nissan Murano, which was parked outside a gas station convenience store in Milford, Maine.

Kelly Brown’s mother had filed a missing-person report, which led police to track down Brown’s cell phone to somewhere around the convenience store, the affidavit said.

The results of the girl’s autopsy are pending, but the Maine Office of Chief Medical Examiner said heat-related death is the most likely explanation based on the existing evidence, the Maine State Police said Monday.

Brown told investigators that she had fallen into a nearby river and suffered an hours-long ordeal to get back to her vehicle, but surveillance video and other evidence contradicted her version of events, the affidavit said.

On July 30, Brown left Havertown with her daughter and her 13-year-old dog, Penelope, for an annual monthlong trip to visit family members in Maine. She had been staying with relatives or at their properties until last Thursday, when she did not return to her mother’s summer residence.

Instead, she started camping in her vehicle with her daughter and dog.

“Kelly Brown stated that as they stopped along the way, she noticed a lot of trash at these rest areas and boat landings and decided that she would teach Fiona Brown about nature and how to keep it clean, so they began to pick up and collect the trash,” the affidavit said.

Surveillance video showed Brown around 2 a.m. Saturday exiting her Nissan outside the Freshies market in Milford, the affidavit said. Brown is again seen exiting her vehicle at 5:56 a.m. Saturday and then allegedly is not seen for more than 14 hours. She returns around 8:30 p.m., when police and EMS personnel were already on scene.

Brown later told investigators that around 2 p.m. Saturday she went to retrieve a full trash bag and intended to quickly return to her daughter and dog in the locked vehicle, the affidavit said.

Brown said trash had dropped from the bag and she was trying to pick up the pieces when she slipped down an embankment directly behind the Freshies and fell into the Penobscot River.

She told investigators she struggled to keep her head above the water and repeatedly hit rocks, and finally she was able to swim across the river to get out, the affidavit said.

It’s unclear if she swam across the river or to a nearby island. According to Google Maps, the distance from the embankment behind the Freshies to the closest point on the island is just under 400 feet. The distance to the closest point on the other side of the river is approximately 1,000 feet.

Brown told investigators, the affidavit said, that she was in pain from the ordeal but was able to eventually cross the river, apparently via a nearby train trestle.

She had numerous scratches and bruises on both her lower arms and lower legs, which she said she sustained while falling down the embankment, the affidavit said. The scratches and bruises were photographed, and Brown was taken to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center to be treated.

The affidavit said that Brown screamed when she was told her daughter and dog were dead, and that she “stated that Fiona Brown and Penelope were her world, and she didn’t know what to do.”

Investigators, however, said her story did not add up.

“Kelly Brown’s alternative explanation for abandoning her daughter and dog in the locked closed car on a hot August day contradicts the surveillance video and the observations of the law enforcement officers when she appeared on the scene and was later interviewed,” the affidavit said.

Brown was booked into the Penobscot County Jail. Maine State Police said that bail had been set, but it was not immediately clear on Wednesday if she was still in custody.