A Mother and Boyfriend Leave Disabled 13-Year-Old Daughter in Scorching Hot Car for 6 Hours

On August 5th, 2019, a 13-year-old girl named Cristina Pangalangan, who had disabilities, was locked in a hot car for approximately 6 hours. Rita Pangalangan, Cristina’s mother, and her then-boyfriend, Larry Eugene King Jr., exited the house holding Cristina and opened the backseat of Rita’s Volkswagen Jetta, placing Christina inside.

Nearly six hours later, police were dispatched to Larry’s home, and the first responding officers encountered a tragic scene. When the first officer pulled into the driveway, she saw a pair of legs sticking out from the tall grass near a vehicle. She also saw a little girl lying face down in the grass with burns and blisters all over her body. When paramedics arrived minutes later, they realized that 13-year-old Cristina was already deceased and beyond help at that point. They attempted to take her temperature, which reached 110 degrees, but that was only because that was as far as the thermometer could read.

Larry was outside, but Rita had actually gone back inside. Upon questioning them, Rita said that she had only left Cristina in the car for a few minutes while she went inside to get cigarettes, and that the car and AC were on. However, the cameras on Larry’s property painted a much more sinister picture. In reality, Christina was locked inside a 130-degree car for 5 hours and 41 minutes.

Larry and Rita both ended up being charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, and great bodily harm of a child for Cristina’s death. After they were arrested and brought to the station, both Larry and Rita swore up and down that the car was on when they placed Cristina inside, but not even their own defense attorney believed them.

Larry ended up being granted a $50,000 bond, and Rita $100,000, which they ended up posting. They were able to live life normally until their trial began last year in August, 2023.

During the trial, disturbing evidence came out that made people realize this was not like any other hot car death case that had been heard before. When reviewing the security camera footage, at around 11:00 AM Rita and Larry could be seen arguing. Larry would later say this was because he confronted her about possible infidelity, which according to him she actually admitted to. Larry said that over the course of the entire weekend, he and Rita partied together, did meth together, and by Monday morning, he was exhausted from not sleeping; he didn’t feel like arguing anymore, so he asked her to leave and said that they could talk later. He brought Cristina out of the car, and many people say that it looks like he basically threw Cristina in, rather than gently placing her inside. There was no point where Larry or Rita can be seen turning on the car, but Larry was adamant that when he put Cristina inside, it was already running.

Rita did have a push-to-start vehicle feature, and you could turn it from the key fob, but when you typically do that, you can see the lights flashing. However, there was no flashing up until that point, so it’s very unlikely that the car was actually on.

That day in South Carolina in August, it reached almost 90 degrees outside, and the internal temperature of the car would have reached at least 130 degrees, sitting in the blaring sun with no shade.

Rita and Larry could be seen arguing some more, and they ended up going back inside. They couldn’t be seen coming back out of the house until around 1:45 PM, but Rita didn’t open the door or check to make sure that Cristina was okay. Her windows were also extremely tinted, and you couldn’t just see right in unless you had your face up against the glass. Both of them stood on the front porch and continued talking for around 15 minutes, then they began hugging and kissing. In the doorway, they started getting pretty hot and heavy before going back inside. Larry later said that when they got back in, they did proceed to have sex while Cristina was just in the car alone. They didn’t come back outside for over an hour until around 3:00 PM, and the only reason Rita approached the car was because she needed to get her cigarettes. She tried all of the door handles and realized that the doors were locked. Reportedly, the model of the Jetta was a 2012 year, but newer cars with push-to-start features won’t lock if the keys are inside, so that could potentially be another way to prove that the car was not actually on.

After that, Larry and Rita tried to carefully get the windows to open using the old coat hanger method, and basically anything other than breaking a window, which is what most parents would do if their child was locked inside a car. So when they failed to open the door, they stopped trying and went and had a nice little swing on the porch for more than 15 minutes. At one point, they even started shaking the car a little bit, maybe trying to wake up Cristina or to confirm she wasn’t moving. After that, they decided to get into Larry’s truck and drive to Rita’s house to locate an extra key. Instead of one staying behind to be there with Cristina, both of them left. Again, they were gone for more than an hour.

They arrived at around 4:30 PM with a key, but they were in no rush; they arrived there and didn’t get out of the truck. Both sat in the truck and chatted for a bit.

Both of them were so high that Larry was actually pushing the lock button over and over again, the CCTV footage also shows the light blinking, like they blink when you lock your car. An investigator that testified during the trial said he conducted several tests and said that the lights will not flash like that when you push the lock button if the car is running, another piece of evidence proving the car was not on.

Finally, at around 4:50 PM, these two people realized that they could use the actual key instead of the key fob to open the door, but at that point Cristina was already gone.

When they both saw Cristina, Rita rushed inside, and Larry put Cristina face down in the grass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0IXe4QaIBM&pp=ygUUY3Jpc3RpbmEgcGFuZ2FsYW5nYW4%3D

The first responder found that Cristina was also completely soiled, which is to be expected after that long period.

During the autopsy, the medical examiner found vomit in Cristina’s lungs, which means she started to inhale stomach fluid as her body was shutting down. On further examining it was found that Cristina was malnourished and had pre-existing infections due to poor hygiene.

On September 1st, 2023, the jury took only 2 hours to find Larry and Rita guilty of murder.

Larry was sentenced to 32 years for murder and an additional 20 years for great bodily harm, a total of 52 years.

Rita was sentenced to 37 years in prison and an additional 20 years for great bodily harm, a total of 57 years.

Trial Link: