Dr. Stacey Fazenbaker is speaking out after her 10-month-old granddaughter died in her hot car.
The 61-year-old Kentucky physician was tested for drugs and alcohol following the tragedy, but Madisonville Police do not anticipate positive results, authorities confirmed. Fazenbaker had offered to drive her granddaughter Scottie Gwyn Crowell to daycare on Aug. 13, but instead drove straight to Owensboro Health Multicare in Madisonville where she works, apparently forgetting the child was strapped in the backseat.
Temperatures outside reached 95 degrees that day, while the interior of the vehicle peaked at 115 degrees, according to local reports. Scottie remained in the car for approximately eight hours before Fazenbaker discovered her still strapped in the backseat.
When Scottie’s father arrived at the daycare around 4 p.m. To pick her up, staff informed him she had never been dropped off that morning, according to reports. The family quickly realized what had happened.
“Horrified, Fazenbaker ran outside with some co-workers to get the child,” Madisonville Police Major Jason McKnight told reporters. “But it was far too late by then.”
“The grandmother had already got the child, and so the officers tried some lifesaving measures, but unfortunately it was too late for that,” McKnight continued.
No charges have been filed as police continue their investigation into the tragedy. Fazenbaker was tested for drugs and alcohol, but police don’t anticipate positive results.
“As the picture becomes clearer on how this could have possibly happened, there is a possibility charges are sought before the grand jury convenes,” McKnight said.
An autopsy will determine Scottie’s official cause of death.
Fazenbaker had relocated to Madisonville just a year ago to be closer to her daughter Sydni Crowell, 33, who is also a physician working as a local OB-GYN, according to reports. Scottie was born on Sept. 20, via in vitro fertilization and was her parents’ second child.
“We love you so much, our sweet baby girl,” Sydni’s sister Emmy Fazenbaker, a sports reporter for Middle Tennessee State University, posted in tribute on Facebook.
Sydni Crowell began working at Baptist Health Deaconess in Madison in February 2025 after completing her residency at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis.
In the viral moment that sparked national attention, a grandmother’s routine offer to help with daycare drop-off turned fatal when she drove to work with the baby still in the car. The case has reignited discussions about hot car deaths, which claim an average of 37 children’s lives annually according to safety data, with more than half involving children forgotten by a parent or caregiver. Kentucky Child Protective Services has also become involved in the investigation, police confirmed.
The Madisonville Police Department continues its probe as the family grieves publicly and privately, with social media posts from relatives expressing their devastation over the loss.