Why Did He Leave His Baby in a Hot Car | Forensic Files

[Music] Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at
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confidential support, and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this
episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all
listeners. 30-year-old Lyanna Harris was nearing the end of her workday on Wednesday,
June 18, 2014, when at 3:16 p.m., she received a text message. It was from her husband, 33-year-old Justin Harris, who
went by his middle name of Ross. When are you getting my buddy? The message read.
Ross was referring to the couple's son, 22-month-old Cooper Harris, who needed to be picked up from daycare.
The couple typically took turns dropping Cooper off and picking him up, depending
on whose schedule worked best at the time. Ross had dropped him off that morning as
Lyanna had an early start in her job as a dietician. It was agreed that Lyanna would pick
Cooper up because Ross had plans to go to the movies with friends after work to see the comedy action film 22 Jump
Street. Lyanna clocked off at 400 p.m. and made the 1-hour drive to the Little Apron
Academy in Vinnings, Georgia. The child care facility was customuilt for employees at the Home Depot's
Atlanta headquarters, where Ross Harris worked as a web developer. It was conveniently located just 5 and a
half miles from the Harris's home in the city of Marietta and right around the corner from Ross' work.
Cooper had been a regular attendee at the Little Apron Academy since he was about 6 weeks old, where the staff had
come to know the Harris family well. Lyanna had done the daycare run countless times. But when she entered
the building on this occasion, Cooper's teacher looked surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?" the teacher
asked. Lyanna was confused. "I'm here to get Cooper," she responded. The teacher looked at her with a puzzled
expression on her face and said, "Cooper's not here." It took Lyanna a moment to register what
she was hearing. Assuming it was some kind of twisted joke, she asked, "No, really, where is Cooper?"
But the teacher looked her square in the eye and firmly repeated, "He's not here."
Lyanna didn't know what to think. She was immediately overcome with fear as all kinds of scenarios flooded through
her mind. What if someone had kidnapped Koopa? What if Ross had absent-mindedly left
him at home that morning by mistake? A daycare employee offered to drive with Lyanna to Ross' office building around
the corner. When they got to the Home Depot parking lot, Lyanna couldn't see Ross' car anywhere.
Panicked, Lyanna raced into the office building, desperately trying to call Ross as she ran.
He didn't answer his phone and the security guard in the lobby told her that Ross had already left work for the
day. Lyanna sat in the lobby as she contemplated what to do next. Then her phone rang. It was a detective.
He asked Lyanna where she was and told her to stay put, saying he was coming to see her. "It's bad, right?" Lyanna asked
him. "Yes," the detective replied. "It's bad. [Music] [Music] Approximately half an hour earlier at
4:24 p.m., police officers had pulled into the parking lot at the Acres Mill Square Shopping Center, roughly 2 mi
from the Home Depot headquarters to find a troubling scene. A silver Hyundai Tucson SUV was parked
haphazardly on the curb with a crowd gathered around looking at something on the pavement. It was the body of
22-month-old Cooper Harris, his skin a bluish green and his veins clearly visible under his pale skin. His father,
Ross Harris, was pacing nervously nearby. His cell phone pressed to his ear as a good Samaritan unsuccessfully
attempted CPR on the small boy. "What have I done?" Ross screamed. "What have I done? I killed my son."
One of the officers stepped in and took over the resuscitation attempt, but it was clear that Cooper had been deceased
for some time. Ross came closer, shrieking hysterically. Oh my god. Oh my god. One of the officers asked Ross to get
off the phone and show them some ID. He told them to hold on. When they asked him again, he snapped, "Shut the [ __ ] up
and hold on. My son just died." This reaction prompted the police to place Ross in handcuffs and put him into
the back of a patrol car to ensure he didn't flee the scene. He promised to calm down if they just
removed the cuffs, saying, "You have to understand, I'm just really upset." Ross told the police he needed to call
the Little Apron Academy before his wife arrived to find Cooper wasn't there. One of the officers asked why she would
think her son was there. Ross responded, "Because I was supposed to drop him off
this morning and I didn't do a second look in my car and left him in my car while I was at work. I swore I dropped
him off. I thought I did." Ross Harris was taken to the police station where he explained to two
interviewing detectives that the morning had started out like any other. Cooper had been having trouble sleeping
over the past few nights and had woken up early at around 5:15 a.m. Ross got up and brought him into bed
with him and Lyanna where they all snoozed until Lyanna left for work at around 7:15.
Ross and Cooper then got up and watched cartoons until it was time to leave for the day.
Ross typically dropped Cooper at daycare in time for breakfast, but they were running late, so he decided they'd have
a Daddy Sun meal at the Chick-fil-A restaurant near his work instead. Ross ordered breakfast from there most
days, usually from the drive-thru, but every couple of weeks, he brought Cooper along with him and they dined in.
Ross said that after eating breakfast, he strapped Cooper into his car seat and kissed him like he always did. He then
pulled on to Cumberland Parkway and headed towards the Little Apron Academy. But instead of turning left at the
upcoming intersection like he was supposed to, he must have continued straight towards his office.
Ross said that Cooper didn't make a sound, so he must have fallen asleep and Ross had completely forgotten he was
there. He parked in Home Depot's surface parking lot and proceeded to work a normal 7-hour shift, going out for lunch
with some friends before knocking off to go to the movies. Ross admonished himself for not checking
the back seat before he went into work that morning. He told the detectives that he knew how
dangerous a hot car could be for a small child ever since he'd seen a news report
about a man who accidentally did the same thing. That man had since become an advocate
for parents to always turn around and doublech checkck the back seat. Ross explained,
"I've been doing that because the worst fear for me is to leave my son in a hot car."
He said he'd also watched an online video about the dangers of leaving dogs inside hot cars and it had made him
think about how terrible it would be for a child. When asked about his relationship with
Lyanna, Ross said it was good with its typical ups and downs. He said their finances were solid other
than some student debt from their college days. The detectives told Ross that Lyanna had
been notified about what happened and was at the station. They needed to go speak with her. And in
the meantime, they told Ross he'd be held in a cell. Ross asked why. The detectives explained
that because his actions led to Cooper's death, he was going to be charged, most
likely with cruelty to a child. Ross seemed shocked. It was completely unintentional. He
stated, "I have no history of child abuse, no history of domestic violence. I have no criminal history. I have no
record whatsoever. I've worked in a law enforcement environment. I'm a great father and I have multiple
people who would back that up." [Music] Ross wasn't exaggerating. The 33-year-old had a clean background.
He'd been raised in the Alabama city of Tuscaloosa, where he'd held various jobs
at the University of Alabama before working as a police dispatcher for several years.
He'd met Lyanna when he was 23, and the two quickly fell in love and got married.
Lyanna was introverted and earnest whereas Ross was extroverted and outgoing. Together, they brought out the best of
each other's personalities. Ross helped to bring Lyanna out of her shell, while Lyanna motivated Ross to
reach his potential and encouraged him to go back to school. He went on to get a bachelor's degree in
commerce and business administration, which led to his job at Home Depot. The couple relocated to Atlanta in 2012
where Ross lived an active social life and played guitar in their church band. Life was going well for the couple, but
there was just one thing missing. From a very young age, the one thing Lyanna wanted was to be a wife and
mother. Likewise, Ross wanted children so badly that his work colleagues even referred
to him as soccer dad. After months of trying, in early 2012, the couple got the good news they'd been
desperately hoping for. Lyanna was pregnant. Ross was so excited that he uploaded a
video of their first ultrasound to his YouTube account along with the caption, "First video known as Cooper."
When Cooper was born on Sunday, August 12th, 2012, holding him for the first time was the best feeling in the world
for Lyanna. As the couple navigated their way through the first few exhausting months
of parenting a fussy baby, Lyanna was impressed with how well Ross stepped into his new role.
He was a dedicated, hands-on father who never hesitated to get up in the night to put Cooper back to sleep.
The father and son developed a special bond with the young boy's blue eyes lighting up every time Ross walked into
the room. Cooper grew to be a happy, smiley, and thriving baby. By the time his second birthday was
approaching, he'd developed an adventurous personality and a love for cars of all kinds.
Everyone who knew Ross Harris described him as a nice, well-mannered man who was
a great husband, supportive friend, and devoted father. He gushed about Kooper so much that one
colleague even told him that people were sick of hearing about the baby. Therefore, as the news spread about
Kooper's death, there could only be one explanation for those who knew the Harris family.
This was a tragic accident that couldn't have happened to less deserving people and it wouldn't be the first time.
According to the not for-p profofit organization Kids and Car Safety, an average of around 40 young children die
in the US each year after being left in a hot car. While some of those deaths occur due to
criminal negligence or after a caregiver uneducated on the dangers decides to leave a child in the car while they work
or attend an appointment, a majority of caregivers simply forget that their child is in the car. It is such a common
phenomenon that it has its own name, forgotten baby syndrome. Associate professor of law Erica
Breitfeld explained in her article about the phenomenon for the Berkeley Journal
of Criminal Law, part of the reason parents can forget their children in the car is because of
where the children are placed in a vehicle. Children, especially those under the age of three, are almost
always in a rear-facing car seat. Consequently, when a parent looks behind them in the back seat, whether or not
the child is in the car, they see the same thing, the back of the child's car seat, not the child.
Because many young children fall asleep during car rides, there are often no audio cues to remind a caregiver of
their presence in the vehicle. Parents who are often sleepdeprived in those early years have nothing to remind
them that a child is in the back seat except their own memory. On a warm day, the internal temperature
of a vehicle rises rapidly, even when the windows are partially open. A child's body heat also rises up to
five times faster than an adult. If a child is left in a hot car, it doesn't take long before they become
hypothermic and their organs begin to shut down. On the day Cooper Harris died, the
external temperature had reached 86° F or 30° C by midday. It was estimated that the inside of
Ross' vehicle could have reached around 100° F or 38° C by 100 p.m. and that Cooper was likely dead by then.
Scratches on the young boy's face as well as small abrasions on his head, hands, and feet indicated he had
struggled as he became increasingly uncomfortable. The medical examiner said he likely
experienced nausea, headache, anxiety, and possible seizures before succumbing to heat stroke.
It is a common misconception that only a negligent parent could accidentally leave their child in a hot car.
The unfortunate reality is that it could happen to anyone. Neurologists who have studied forgotten
baby syndrome, have found that these incidents typically occur when the brain's prospective memory system, which
is responsible for reminding us to do things, goes into conflict with the brain's habit memory system, which is
the part of our brain that runs on autopilot. When tensions arise between these two
systems, often due to stress, fatigue, external events, or a change in routine, the habit memory can take over.
If a parent's usual routine is to drive to work alone, and there are no cues to remind them that the child is in the
car, they might drive to work on autopilot without ever dropping the child where they are supposed to go.
The brain is then capable of creating a false memory, leading the parent to believe that they dropped their child
off safely. Journalist Jean Weinearten wrote about the phenomenon in a Pelitza prize-winning article for the Washington
Post titled Fatal Distraction. After looking into various cases and statistics involving children left in
hot cars, Jean concluded, "What kind of person forgets a baby? The wealthy do, it turns out, and the poor
and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do. Mothers are just as likely to do it as
fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college educated, and
to the marginally literate. Last year, it happened three times in one day, the worst day so far in the
worst year so far in a phenomenon that gives no sign of a baiting. It therefore caused public outrage when
it was announced that Ross Harris was being charged not only with secondderee child cruelty, but with Cooper's murder.
People who knew the Harris family, as well as total strangers, immediately came to Ross' defense.
Two petitions were launched urging authorities to release Ross and drop the charges.
Concerned citizens said Ross had suffered enough and should not be punished for an innocent lapse in
memory. Other parents whose children had died as a result of forgotten baby syndrome also
came out in support of Ross with one of his friends writing on one of the petitions.
Ross is an incredible friend. He's always the first to help when tragedy strikes others. So, I'm returning the
favor. Another said, "I've known Ross for over 10 years, and he is a selfless man who
loved people and loved his family more." But from the moment police arrived on the scene outside the Acres Mill Square
Shopping Center, they didn't feel like this was a typical hot car death. Straight off the bat was the unusual
positioning of Cooper's car seat. Unlike most hot car deaths where the child was
in a rear-facing seat, either directly behind the driver's seat or passenger seat, Cooper's rear-facing seat was in
the middle. This placed him just inches from the driver's seat, right near Ross's elbow.
It was hard for the police to imagine that Ross could have looked to his right without seeing him there.
Furthermore, when crime scene examiners entered the car, they were hit with a distinct odor that they knew to be the
smell of death. They could also smell Cooper's urine soaked diaper. It seemed unimaginable that Ross could
have driven the two miles from his work to Acres Mill Square without noticing the odor and investigating its source.
Not only that, but Cooper's autopsy confirmed that he was 33 in tall. The height limit for his car seat was 30
in. And by Cooper's age, most parents had already opted to put their children in forward-facing seats.
Then there was Ross' reaction at the scene. Passers by who had seen Ross pull Cooper
from his car found it strange that he placed the child's body on the hot pavement and stopped attempting CPR
after just a couple of compressions. It seemed even stranger that he walked away from Cooper and immediately got on
his cell phone while others stepped in to try and help his son. Curiously, Ross didn't call emergency
services, but instead tried calling Cooper's daycare so that they could alert Lyanna.
Witnesses and police thought his reaction looked staged. One minute he was shrieking hysterically. The next, he
was completely calm. While he appeared to be crying, he didn't shed any actual tears.
One officer described Ross' behavior as very random and very odd, while another thought that his yelling seemed monotone
and forced. Things just got stranger once Ross was placed in the police car. Despite having found his son dead in a
hot car just minutes earlier, Ross immediately started complaining about how hot it was, even though the air
conditioning was on. He also complained that the handcuffs were hurting him and asked for them to
be released. At no point did he ask to see Cooper or mention him at all. Dash cam footage captured Ross as he
alternated between sitting calmly and wailing, "Oh my god, what have I done? My boy, what have I done?"
At one point, he looked directly into the camera. Then on the drive to the police station,
Ross engaged in casual chitchat with the officer who detained him. He asked her how long she had been in law enforcement
and made comments about how the handcuffs their department used were different to the ones he had seen while
working for the police in Alabama. This casual conversation coming from a man who had just lost a child under
horrific circumstances made the officer uncomfortable. This erratic behavior continued once
Ross was put into the interrogation room. During the 14-minute wait before the interviewing detectives arrived, video
cameras captured Ross sitting calmly. Every now and then, his calm demeanor would give way to a brief moment of
dry-eyed crying, wailing, or heavy breathing, interspersed with erratic yells of, "Oh, God, my boy, why?"
At one point, he started pacing around the room, rubbing his eyes and huffing. One of the detectives who was watching
Ross on the camera thought he looked like he was trying to make himself hyperventilate.
When Lyanna was taken in to see him, Ross started talking about how scared he was of going to prison. "All I can think
about is that jail cell," he said, specifying he was particularly worried about the hard bed and the metal toilet.
He also asked what would happen if he lost his job. To the investigators, these seemed like strange concerns for a
man who had just lost his son to a slow and painful death. Stranger still, Ross had told Lyanna
that when he pulled Cooper from the vehicle, he quote dreaded how he would look.
Not only did investigators find it concerning that Ross had used the past tense, but Ross told Lyanna that
Cooper's eyes had been closed and he looked at peace. First responders at the scene said that
Cooper's eyes had actually been open. When Ross was taken to a holding cell after being informed he was being
arrested for murder, his cellmate also found his demeanor to be inconsistent with someone who had just lost a child.
Instead of seeming sad or upset, he appeared calm and nonchalant. While the members of law enforcement who
crossed paths with Ross Harris that day were aware that everyone responds very differently in moments of grief, they
all agreed that Ross' reaction was completely out of the norm. Their suspicions only grew after viewing
CCTV footage taken from the day Cooper died. The footage from Chick-fil-A showed Ross
holding a Happy Cooper in his arms as they ordered their breakfast and chatted to the manager.
After finishing eating, they then headed to the Home Depot parking lot. Ross claimed that Cooper must have
fallen asleep during this drive, but it was only a 4-minute journey, leading some investigators to question the
validity of his claim. At 9:24 a.m., the grainy footage captured Ross as he parked his Tucson in
a spot in the back corner of the lot, a considerable distance from the security cameras.
There was a parked car on one side of his vehicle and a grassy patch on the other.
Ross sat in the car for around 30 seconds before walking into his office building carrying a Chick-fil-A cup and
his work bag. Throughout the day, various people passed the Tucson without noticing
Cooper inside. Then, at 12:42 p.m., almost 3 and 1/2 hours into Cooper's ordeal, the CCTV
footage captured something unexpected. Ross returned to his car. He opened the front driver's side door and placed
something inside before walking back into his office. Curiously, Ross had made no mention of
this to the police, despite going into a lot of detail about everything else. When questioned about it, Ross explained
that the friends he had gone out for lunch with that day worked around the corner from him. They'd picked him up,
which they typically did, and taken him to one of their frequent eeries nearby. Afterwards, they all stopped into Home
Depot so Ross could buy some light bulbs. Ross' friends then dropped him back at
his car and drove away. The CCTV footage showed Ross reach into the front driver's side of his vehicle
and throw the bag of light bulbs inside without putting his head in or glancing into the back seat. He then closed the
door 2 seconds later and walked away. The police weren't entirely sure what to make of this.
The fact that Ross had withheld this information raised some questions about whether he could have returned to the
vehicle to check that everything was going according to plan. Otherwise, if Ross had genuinely
forgotten that Cooper was inside the vehicle, the police assumed this moment would have triggered his memory.
And according to the medical examiner who performed Kooper's autopsy, it was possible that Kooper could have still
been alive at this time. With members of the public debating over whether or not Ross Harris was guilty,
Cooper was remembered at a funeral service paid for by Home Depot. Ross, who had been denied bail, was not
allowed to attend. Instead, he called in from jail, listening in via speaker phone as Lyanna
Harris spoke publicly for the first time since Cooper's death. Lyanna clarified to the 250 mourners
gathered that she held no anger towards her husband. "It has never crossed my mind," she
stated, prompting a round of applause. Ross is and was and will be, if we have more children, a wonderful father.
Ross is a wonderful daddy and leader for our household. Cooper meant the world to him.
Lyanna said that Cooper had been perfect. He changed their lives, turning things upside down in a way she wouldn't
trade for the world. She recalled the last two nights of Kooper's life where he ended up sleeping
between her and Ross. "I remember turning over in the middle of the night," she said. His mouth was open and
his full toddler lips just breathing right into my face. "I will cherish that moment forever."
Leaning on her Christianity for strength, Lyanna continued, "Some of you might wonder how I'm even
standing here today. I wonder that myself, and I asked myself that question over and over the last week. I should be
crumpled into a heap of snot and tears into the dirt. But the Lord is holding me up right now.
He is holding Ross up and he is holding both of us up when we can't hold ourselves up.
She said that Cooper was in the most peaceful, wonderful place there is. Lyanna followed Cooper's casket out of
the church with Ross still on speakerphone. Before hanging up, she told him that she
loved him. For those close to the Harris family, Lyanna's impassioned show of support for
Ross was further testament to their belief that he was being subject to a cruel injustice.
But what they and the sympathetic public didn't know was that the police had uncovered evidence to suggest Ross
wasn't who he painted himself to be. When Ross Harris was first taken into custody, the detectives asked him for
the passcode to unlock his cell phone. He stammered for a moment, saying he didn't know what it was before saying he
used a biometric sensor. Later in the interview, Ross said the passcode was his and Lyanna's anniversary. His
apparent reluctance to give the police access to his phone led them to suspect there was something on there he didn't
want them to see. They obtained search warrants for Ross' work and home where they seized a number of items, including
his iPhone and several computers. What they uncovered revealed there was a very different sites of Ross than he
publicly portrayed. Electronic Records revealed that he spent a significant amount of time using
Whisper, an anonymous social networking app where users could post content, join
interest groups, and send private messages without revealing their identity. Users were encouraged to share their
intimate secrets with others able to then like or interact with those posts. Ross not only used a whisper to engage
with posts, but as a means to contact other women. In the 6 months leading up to Cooper's
death, Ross engaged in sexual conversations with at least 30 women. He spoke of his strong sexual desires,
telling multiple users that he was addicted to sex. Ross told one woman that he used sex
with strangers to keep him sane. writing to another, "I am a church guitar player, but I can lead somewhat of a
double life." Over various conversations, Ross said that he missed being single, admitted to
cheating on his wife, and said that he sometimes hated being married. "I just want to [ __ ] a lot of girls, drink a
lot, and have fun," he said. During a conversation on Christmas Day 2013, Ross told one woman that he cheats
quote a lot. When she asked him why he didn't get a divorce, he responded simply, "Kid
at 5:46 on the morning that Cooper died, Ross started his day by exchanging messages with at least three other
women, one of which involved a conversation about oral sex. By the time Lyanna left for work and
Ross and Cooper were up watching cartoons, Ross continued messaging these women, writing to one of them, "You can
come suck me today." He continued using Whisper during his breakfast with Cooper at Chick-fil-A and
throughout his workday. from his office cubicle. Ross sent sexual messages to several women asking
two of them for pictures of their breasts. Both of them responded with the photos
as requested. Over the course of an hour, Ross engaged in an intermittent sexual conversation
with another woman and then another, sending her a photo of his erect penis. All up, it turned out that Ross Harris
had engaged in sexual conversations with at least six women on the day that Cooper died.
Police managed to track these women down, as well as several others. After speaking with each of them, the
true extent of Ross' so-called double life emerged. In early 2013, Ross started exchanging
sexual messages with a 23-year-old college student named Alexandra. He never told her he was married or had
a child, only that he had a girlfriend. Shortly after they started chatting online, Ross drove to Alexandra's dorm
and took her out to a back road where they engaged in oral sex. They stayed in contact from that point
onwards, but didn't meet again with Ross sending Alexandra a photo of his erect penis just days before Cooper died.
In May 2013, Ross started chatting online to an 18-year-old named Janie. They began talking on the phone, too.
Some of their conversations being sexual in nature, and eventually they both admitted they were falling in love.
In August 2013, Ross unexpectedly showed up at a place he knew Janie was going to
be. They kissed but didn't meet in person again, although they stayed in contact
and continued to express their love for one another. During their phone conversations, Janie
could sometimes hear Cooper babbling away in the background. She once received a message from Ross
that said, "If Cooper wasn't in the picture, I probably would have left my wife by now."
That same summer, Ross struck up a conversation with a 19-year-old woman named Jacqueline after she posted on
Whisper about seeing the erotic film Fifty Shades of Gray, and things immediately turned sexual between them.
A few weeks later, Jacqueline went to Ross's house and the two had sex. They didn't meet again, but continued to
talk online with Ross encouraging Jacquine to meet him for another rendevous. In February 2014, Ross told Jacqueline
that while on vacation, he'd met a man on Whisper, and the two had relations. Also, in early 2014, Ross started
chatting online with a 21-year-old woman named Elizabeth. A few weeks later, they met up in a
parking lot and had sex in Ross' vehicle. They met up again in April 2014 and kissed.
Ross and Elizabeth stayed in contact for 5 months, during which they racked up over 44 pages of sexually explicit
messages, with Ross explaining in graphic detail all of the things he wanted to do to Elizabeth.
Ross began communicating with 23-year-old Caitlyn in June 2014. Knowing Ross was married, Caitlyn once
asked him if his conscience ever kicked in, but Ross responded simply, "Nope." On the morning of Wednesday, June 11,
one week before Cooper died, Ross sent Caitlyn a photo of his erect penis, and they discussed the possibility of her
coming to his house after Lyanna left for the day. Ross told Caitlyn it would be risky, but
that as long as they got to have sex, he was quote, "Game for risk." But there was one woman in particular
who Ross contacted in the hours before Cooper died that really caught the attention of the police.
Bella, not her real name, had been chatting to Ross on Whisper since late 2013. Most of their conversations were sexual
in nature with Ross repeatedly asking Bella to send him photos of her genitals. Bella refused every time, but that
didn't stop Ross from sending her five separate photos of his erect penis over a 3-month period along with requests for
oral sex. The messages Ross sent Bella used graphic sexual language, and he proposed
sexual encounters using graphic detail, telling her what he planned to do to her. Quote, "Even if you say no."
The problem was, at the time Ross first started communicating with Bella, she was only 16 years old.
Bella told the police that Ross was aware of her age, as she'd told him shortly after they started chatting.
This hadn't stopped Ross from engaging in sexual contact with Bella. Instead, it seemingly encouraged him.
Just weeks before Cooper died, Ross asked Bella to meet him in his car for her first experience with oral sex.
While Cooper sat strapped into his car seat dying of heat stroke, Ross had asked Bella for a photo of her breasts.
When she obliged, he responded, "Yummy!" and asked yet again for a photo of her genitals.
[Music] Given that Bella was a minor, the police charged Ross Harris with one count of
attempting to commit sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of dissemination of harmful material to a
minor. But Bella wasn't the only minor Ross was speaking to. In May 2014, he had responded to a
whisper post that said, "I love older men," by sending a picture of his erect penis.
The user who posted it was a 15-year-old girl named Abby, not her real name. Abby
initially told Ross she was 18, but she came clean about her real age quickly after the two started chatting.
Undeterred, Ross told Abby, quote, "Make me a naughty older guy and sent her graphic sexual messages."
He also engaged in sexual conversations with two other minors. Further examination of Ross' internet
history revealed that 12 days before Cooper's death, he'd cleared his Chrome browser cache.
This removed all the data from websites Ross had previously visited, a move the police deemed extremely suspicious.
However, he hadn't cleared his Firefox browser. Records revealed that Ross had once
Googled how to survive in prison, visited a subreddit group dedicated to living childfree, and also conducted
over 800 searches for sex work services. In May 2014, he contacted a sex worker via her ad on the classified website
Back Page, and the two met for paid sex in the woman's hotel room on three occasions.
Phone records revealed that during one of these encounters, Lyanna texted Ross asking him to come home because she and
Cooper missed him. Ross responded that he was helping a friend move house. With the full extent of Ross'
indiscretions coming to light, police believed a motive for Cooper's murder was starting to emerge.
It was apparent that Ross wanted to have sexual relationships with many other women, and his marriage to Lyanna no
doubt impeded that goal. But it was something else investigators found in Ross' online history that
really solidified this theory. At 8:55 on the morning of Cooper's death, shortly before he and Cooper
entered Chick-fil-A for breakfast, Ross viewed a post on Whisper that said, "I hate being married with kids. The
novelty has worn off and I have nothing to show for it." Ross responded to the post saying, "I
miss having time by myself and going out with friends." The poster replied that she had nothing.
All her energy went into being a perfect underappreciated wife with two small kids. While she didn't resent her
children, she did resent her husband. At 9:15 a.m., Ross wrote back, "My wife is upset when I want to go out with
friends. I love my son and all, but we both need escapes. Just 5 minutes later, Ross left
Chick-fil-A, strapped Cooper into his car seat, turned onto Cumberland Parkway, and headed straight to work
instead of turning to Cooper's daycare. Ross was all too aware of how dangerous it was to leave a child in a parked car
on a hot day. Not only had state child care officials sent a generic email about it just 2
months earlier, but Ross had told the police about it himself during his interrogation, saying he'd just watched
a video clip about it. Ross' internet history confirmed that just 5 days before Cooper died, he
watched a video posted by a North Carolina vet named Dr. Ernie Ward, which aimed to raise awareness about the
dangers of hot cars for pet owners. With the external temperature at 94° F or 34° C, Dr. Ward sat in his car with a
timer and a thermometer and documented his experience for the camera. Even with all of the windows cracked
open about an inch and a half and a breeze blowing outside, it reached 100° F or 37° Celsius inside the vehicle
within 10 minutes. Dr. Ward described the heat as stifling and almost unbearable.
While he could see the trees arching in the breeze outside, he said he couldn't feel any semblance of that breeze and
was starting to wonder if this had been a really bad idea. By the 30 minute mark, the internal
temperature had soared to 113° F or 45° C, and a Dr. Ward was drenched in sweat.
He said that everything in his body was telling him to get out, get out, get out, and that he couldn't imagine how
frightening this feeling would be for a helpless dog that had no idea when its owner was coming back.
You can make all the excuses you want, Dr. Ward concluded, but those excuses are meaningless unless you have sat in
that car during that time. [Music] The circumstantial evidence against Ross Harris was stacking up. Investigators
had pieced together an image of a man who was unsatisfied in his marriage, yet felt compelled to stay because of his
child. They believed Ross wanted to pursue his so-called double life without the burden
of a wife or child, and he therefore staged Cooper's accidental death to rid himself of these burdens.
It seemed almost impossible for them to believe that Ross could have forgotten about Kooper almost immediately after
placing him in the car, especially given the close proximity of Kooper's head in
relation to the driver's seat. It seemed equally implausible that Cooper had fallen asleep within just a couple of
minutes. And even if Ross had genuinely forgotten about Cooper, he had several opportunities throughout his 7-hour
workday to be reminded of the forgotten daycare drop off. Not only did Ross physically return to
the car after lunch, but he also texted Lyanna about who was picking Cooper up. Investigators felt confident they had
enough circumstantial evidence to secure a conviction against Ross Harris. There was just one problem.
Staff at Cooper's Daycare told the police that when Lyanna Harris had arrived at the center on the afternoon
of Wednesday, June 18, 2014 to discover that Cooper wasn't there. One of the first things she said was, "Ross must
have left him in the car. There's no other explanation." The staff had tried to reassure Lyanna
there could be many reasons why Ross hadn't dropped Cooper off that morning, but Lyanna apparently insisted that he'd
been left in the vehicle. When detectives then arrived at the lobby of Ross' office building to break
the news to Lyanna about what had happened, her reaction surprised them. They'd been expecting to find an
emotional rack, but Lyanna had calmly followed them outside of the lobby as she sipped a coffee.
A recorded conversation captured one of the detectives as he told Lyanna, "There's really no easy way to tell you
this. Your child is deceased. I'm very sorry to have to tell you that." Lyanna showed little emotion. She didn't
ask what had happened to Cooper or ask to see him. Instead, she responded, "Where's my husband?"
Lyanna was taken to the police station to see Ross. Instead of asking him what happened, video cameras captured Lyanna
hugging and comforting him. When Ross told her that he was being charged with a crime, Lyanna looked at
him with concern and asked, "Did you say too much?" She continuously reassured Ross that
everything was going to be okay, saying that Cooper was in heaven and his time on Earth was done. His
belly was full of sausage biscuits and he fell asleep. She calmly reassured her husband. "We're going to get through
this. We're going to be that couple that makes it through this, okay?" Ross replied, "I just don't want you to
leave me for anything. You're like my life support right now." Lyanna responded softly. "I won't leave you. I
love you. Look at me. I love you. At Cooper's funeral, Lyanna told those gathered that she felt happy that Cooper
wouldn't have to deal with some of life's letdowns like his first heartbreak, school politics, or the
death of his loved ones. I miss him with all my heart, Lyanna said. Would I bring him back? No. to
bring him back into this broken world would be selfish. When police had asked Lyanna about her
marriage, she said she and Ross sometimes felt financially stressed. A search of the couple's financial
records revealed they had student loans, car loans, and about $4,000 of credit card debt.
Text messages between the two also indicated that Lyanna was unhappy about some purchases Ross had recently made.
This made the police all the more suspicious when it was revealed that the Harrises had two life insurance policies
for Cooper. The first was a $2,000 policy through Home Depot and the second purchased in
November 2012 was for $25,000. Electronic records revealed it wasn't just Ross who had searched online for
information about hot car deaths, but Lyanna had too. Rumors started circulating about the
possibility that Ross and Lyanna had conspired in Cooper's death for financial gain.
By the time the evidence was laid out during a 3-hour probable cause hearing 15 days after Cooper's death, the public
opinion on both Ross and Lyanna Harris had shifted greatly. Although police made it clear that no
charges were being filed against Lyanna, social media went into overdrive with an
article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reporting based on her own sometimes confounding
words along with evidence disclosed at her spouse's explosive probable cause hearing Thursday. Many are wondering
whether there's another side to Lyanna Harris. Lyanna Harris needs to be arrested, one
woman wrote on Twitter. She is as guilty as he is. Another wrote, "Look at those
two twisted demons Cooper had for parents. God will get you and you will pay. Where
are your tears, you scumbag?" Someone commented to Ross on a YouTube clip of Cooper. I hope you and your ugly
cud chewing cow wife burn in hell for murdering this baby. Another wrote to Lyanna. I hope you and
your husband rot in hell. I hope Cooper's screams haunt you until you finally cave and admit what you did.
[Music] The public allegations took a massive toll on Lyanna. Not only was she still coming to terms
with the loss of her son, she was humiliated to find out about Ross' infidelity.
Lyanna claimed she knew nothing about her husband's online or realworld affairs.
She was aware that Ross had struggled with a pornography addiction back in 2008, and she'd once found a message on
his phone asking a woman for pictures of her breasts. The two had sought help for these issues
together, speaking with their pastor and going to couples therapy for a while. Then in around December 2012, Lyanna
caught Ross watching pornography again. And a few months later, she saw a suspicious text on his phone.
They'd resumed therapy until things felt back on track. As far as Lyanna was concerned, at the
time of Cooper's death, Ross had all of these issues under control. She had no idea his behavior had ever extended to
full-blown infidelity, and had she known, she would have sought a divorce. Lyanna was also adamant that she had
nothing to do with Cooper's death. She later explained to ABC's 2020 program that she could understand why
people might have thought her seemingly emotionless behavior was suspicious because she couldn't quite understand it
herself. There's no way for someone to know how they would react, she explained.
Nothing about it felt real. Nothing about it felt like it was happening. It just felt like a bad dream.
Lyanna explained that she had warmly embraced Ross at the police station because it never crossed her mind that
he could have killed Cooper on purpose. She hadn't felt any anger towards him at
that moment because she knew it was an accident and her priority was to provide him with support.
She only asked Ross if he said too much to the police because she knew his personality and he quote doesn't shut
up. All she could think was, "What could Ross have possibly said to make the police think that he had left Cooper in
the car on purpose?" Investigators ultimately concluded there was absolutely no evidence to suggest
Lyanna was involved in Cooper's death in any way. But that didn't stop the public
and media scrutiny. Not only was Lyanna struggling to deal with the grief of losing her son and now
husband, she was unable to work and lost a longunning consulting job as a result
of the media backlash. She returned to Alabama, filing for a divorce from Ross and going back to her
maiden name. In a victim impact statement filed in August 2014, Lyanna wrote that she was
living a tortured existence in which she depended on the Lord for strength and support.
Whatever issues transpired in our marriage is between God and us, for he will judge those moral sins, she wrote.
The rush to judgment by the public and the mainstream media has left me with little confidence in our legal system
and our society. The storm around my family has prevented us from grieving the right way, if there
is a right way. Regardless of her feelings toward Ross, Lyanna wanted to make one thing
abundantly clear. Ross was a wonderful father and he loved Cooper with all of his heart. She wrote
in the statement. Because I saw how he treasured our little boy for 22 months, I know without
a doubt he would never have knowingly allowed any harm to come to our son. I want you to know what a loving father he
was. If found guilty, Ross was facing the possibility of the death penalty. Social media was filled with calls for
his execution with members of the public saying he should be left to die in a hot
car like his son. For Ross' supporters, the revelations that had emerged at the probable cause
hearing left them in a state of shock. The Ross presented in the police testimony was nothing like the Ross they
knew. Many of them stuck by him regardless, adopting the tagline, "We're pro- Ross because we know Ross."
For Ross Harris's supporters, the first and foremost reason they didn't believe Ross had intentionally left Cooper in
the car was simple. He was by all accounts a caring and involved father who loved Kooper dearly and had never
mistreated him in any way. Everyone said so from Lyanna to friends and family to Cooper's daycare workers.
Even the other women Ross had been sexing at the time Cooper died believed that Ross genuinely loved his wife and
son. Ross had told one of the women that he and his wife were having problems in the
bedroom, but he never mentioned wanting to leave Lyanna. He also proudly sent the woman pictures
of himself and Cooper at a baseball game. Ross told another of the women that he
was having problems in his marriage and that if his situation was different, he'd be with her instead of Lyanna.
But he also talked to her about how much he loved Cooper, saying his son was his
life and that he wanted to be with Cooper for everything he did. Just 5 days before Cooper died, Ross
told another of the women he was very happy in his marriage, except for the sexual aspect because he was quote, "Too
much of a sexual freak." According to the woman who went to Ross's house to have sex with him while
Lyanna was out, Ross loved his wife and didn't want to end his marriage. He also
clearly loved his son and never said a bad word about him. When the woman once asked Ross how his boy was doing, Ross
responded enthusiastically, "The best ever." Along with a photo of Koopa. He'd said similar things to Bella, the
underage girl he was charged with exploiting, only ever talking about Cooper in positive ways, and saying he
loved his wife and would never leave her. On the morning that Cooper died, one of his online flings had asked how
his son was doing, and Ross had happily replied, "He's awesome." [Music] While Ross' secret online history
painted a very negative image of the outwardly presenting devoted family man, Ross' supporters also believed his
secret online activity proved he hadn't intentionally killed Cooper. At the time
of Cooper's death, Ross and Lyanna had been planning to take Cooper on a family cruise with Ross' half brother and his
family. Just after midnight on the night before Cooper died, Ross had searched online
about the cost of getting a child's passport. While Cooper sat dying in the car. Ross
had received an email from a travel agent about the trip and had then spent some time searching online for
information about one of the cruise lines the agent recommended. Not only did Ross' supporters believe
this proved he was planning for a future with Cooper, they also thought his behavior on the day Cooper died
indicated he had no idea that his son was trapped in the hot car. Ross' co-workers said he'd acted
completely normally that day, as had Lyanna and the friends he'd gone to lunch with.
Nothing he did or said was out of the ordinary, nor did he seem nervous or distracted.
For Ross' supporters, the fact that he continued sending sexual messages to various women like he usually did was
morally reprehensible, but it wasn't indicative of someone in the middle of a murder plot.
They believed there was simply no way that Ross could have acted so nonchalantly if he knew the son he
adored was slowly and painfully dying right outside his office. They also didn't believe that Ross would
have made plans to go to the movies with friends after work if he knew that Cooper would be dead by then.
Aside from the communication with other women, Ross' supporters didn't believe that his online activity was anywhere
near as damning as investigators painted it to be. For starters, Ross, having cleared his Chrome cache less than 2
weeks before Cooper died, was standard practice for him and his co-workers. As web developers, they used Chrome
frequently and often cleared the cache to see if a website change had been effective.
Contrary to popular belief, there was no evidence to suggest that Ross had specifically sought out information
about leaving children in hot cars or anything of that nature either. Lyanna had warned him of the dangers
back in early 2013 when she sent him an email with the subject line, "Don't be this, Dad." and a link to a news story
about a man in New York who accidentally left his baby in the car for 8 hours. As for the video posted by veterinarian
Dr. Ernie Ward, this had appeared on a popular Reddit thread, and Ross had simply clicked on it, just like hundreds
of other users. The subreddit Ross had visited dedicated to living a child-free lifestyle wasn't
something he'd sort out either. A friend had posted about it in their group chat
and Ross had briefly visited the site, responding almost immediately in the group chat, quote, grossness.
The claims that Ross had searched for how to survive in prison also weren't accurate. A computer expert looked into
Ross' search history and found that he'd actually searched for the term, "What is
prison really like?" He'd done this after telling a friend he'd just finished watching a season of
Orange is the New Black, a fictional Netflix show set in a women's prison. Critics of Ross were quick to point out
that Cooper was too big to still be in his rear-facing car seat. However, as Ross told police in his initial
interrogation, he and Lyanna had purchased a new forward-facing seat just 2 weeks before Cooper died.
It was initially in Ross's car, but they'd switched it over to Lyanna's vehicle so that Cooper would be more
comfortable during a trip they took to Alabama. Lyanna was also adamant that Cooper's
head had still been at least 2 in from the top of the car seat, making it suitable for a child of his size.
A photo had been taken of Cooper in the car seat just under a month before he died, and it showed that the top of his
head was not above the top of the car seat. Lyanna said that Cooper hadn't experienced any significant growth
spurts since that time. For Ross' half brother, Michael, who worked as a police officer in Alabama,
the very notion that Ross could have killed Cooper on purpose, was preposterous.
Sure, Ross could talk too much and be annoying at times, but if there was one thing Michael was certain of, it was
that Ross loved Cooper more than life itself. The two were true buddies. For months, it was Ross who had hounded
Michael about the possibility of taking their wives and children on a family cruise.
Ross and Lyanna had also been saving up to buy a 4-bedroom house because they planned on having another baby before
Cooper turned three. They'd been searching for a property in a good school district with a big
backyard for Cooper to run around in. Michael told the Atlanta Journal Constitution,
"What parent does that unless they are planning for their kids?" After Cooper died, Michael came to
Atlanta to help the Harrises through the tough time. Ross had given him full control of their
bank accounts, and he gained a complete understanding of the couple's finances. While they did have some lingering
student and credit card debt, they also had about $6,000 in savings, always paid
their bills on time, and had excellent credit. Michael told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
To say they were in financial trouble is just crazy. As for the suggestion that Ross could
have killed Cooper to benefit from his life insurance policy, Michael said to think that he killed Cooper for $27,000
is a joke. By the time Ross Harris's murder trial was scheduled to go ahead, it had to be
moved 300 m to Brunswick, Georgia due to the intense local publicity surrounding
the case. It took a further 9 and 1/2 days for the courts to carefully select the jury with
the trial finally commencing in October 2016, just over 2 and 1/2 years after Cooper died.
All up, Ross Harris faced eight charges in relation to malice murder, felony murder, cruelty to children, sexual
exploitation of children, and dissemination of harmful materials to minors. Reporters swarmed around the courthouse
with viewers from all over the country tuning in to watch the televised live stream of the proceedings.
The prosecution's argument was straightforward. They described Ross as being obsessed with his sexual
activities and online interactions to a point that he was prepared to take risk after risk.
He intentionally and maliciously left Cooper to die in the car so he could free himself from his self-imposed
prison and pursue his double life. By removing their child from the equation, the prosecution said Ross
hoped to then divorce Lyanna and achieve his dreams of having sexual relationships with the women he met
online. They presented evidence to support their belief that there was no way Ross could
have forgotten about Cooper's presence during the 4-minute drive to his work from Chick-fil-A.
To get from Chick-fil-A to Ross' office, he had to turn right out of the restaurant and onto a side road. Then he
had to turn right onto Cumberland Parkway, cross through two lanes to get to the left turn lane, make a U-turn,
and then continue straight. To get to Cooper's daycare, he had to do the same U-turn, but then immediately
move into the left lane and turn left. Investigators who had driven this route themselves testified that the maneuvers
leading up to that U-turn took no more than 40 seconds. This essentially gave Ross just 40
seconds to forget that his son was in the car, despite them having just spent 20 minutes dining together. and Cooper's
head being just inches away from Ross in the driver's seat. The defense argued that Ross was a
loving father who had never mistreated Cooper and had no intention of ending his marriage.
He had simply had a momentary lapse in memory on the morning of Wednesday, June 18, 2014, which had tragic consequences.
Dr. Gene Brewer, an expert in human memory systems, testified that it was entirely possible that Ross could have
forgotten about Cooper in that 42nd time frame leading up to the U-turn. He explained to the jury that it all
came down to prospective memory, which is the type of memory that allows a person to remember what they are going
to do next. If a prospective memory goal goes against routine behavior, Dr. Brewer
explained that an individual can lapse into their routine behavior and forget their prospective memory goal in a
matter of seconds, especially when they are distracted by things like fatigue, stress, or external events.
Ross had gone to bed late the night before, as was evident in his phone activity, and then woken up early to
tend to Cooper. Colleagues also testified that he'd had a stressful project on the go at work.
Dr. Brewer said that these factors, combined with the immediate distraction of the complicated U-turn, could have
all played a role in Ross forgetting that Cooper was in the car. Given that he dropped his son off at
daycare most days, Ross could have created a false memory of having dropped Cooper off that morning, too.
Therefore, when potential triggers arose, such as him discussing the pickup with Lyanna or putting the light bulbs
in his car, there was nothing to signal to Ross that anything was different or strange about the situation.
The defense said that various factors such as Ross searching for the cost of child passport fees at work that day,
looking up family cruise information, and planning to see a movie with friends that evening were not indicative of
someone who was planning to or actively engaging in killing his son in a slow and painful way.
He didn't try to isolate himself, but interacted with co-workers, went to lunch with friends, and went about his
online activities as per usual. At no point did he do anything to indicate he was aware of what was
unfolding in his car outside. The prosecution called various members of law enforcement and witnesses who
testified to Ross Harris's strange behavior at the scene of Cooper's death and at the police station afterwards.
However, upon cross-examination, these witnesses acknowledged that they didn't know Ross personally or how he typically
responded to traumatic events. Prosecutors also called multiple women who either had extrammarital sex with
Ross or engaged in sexually explicit online conversations with him, including one sex worker and two minors.
Each of the women seemed embarrassed and uncomfortable as they provided their testimony, particularly when they were
asked to read aloud some of the vulgar messages that Ross had sent them. However, upon cross-examination, none of
the women provided any evidence to suggest that Ross wanted to rid himself of his parenting responsibilities.
On the contrary, several of them testified that Ross had only ever spoken about Cooper in loving terms, and they
believed him to be an adoring father. Ross waved his right to testify in his own defense, but he had a powerful
supporter. His now ex-wife, Lyanna, appeared on the stand as a witness for the defense,
saying that while the side of Ross' personality that had since been revealed might have made him a lousy husband, he
was never anything but a devoted father to Cooper. He wanted to be the one to push him on a
swing. Lyanna said he wanted to be the one to slide down the slide with him. He wanted to enjoy every second he could
with him. The defense asked Lyanna if Ross loved his little boy. "Yes, he did," she
replied very much. Asked how she felt about her ex-husband now, Lyanna looked right at Ross as she
said. "He ruined my life. He destroyed my life. I'm humiliated. I may never trust anybody again. If I never see him
again after this day, that's fine. By the time closing arguments were delivered, the media had run wild with
stories about Ross Harris's secret sex life. The prosecution told the jury that Ross
had closed the door on Cooper's life because of his own selfishness. This isn't a case about an adult hating
a child, they said. It's just that Ross loved himself and his other obsession more than that little boy.
The trial ran for 26 days with over 70 witnesses providing testimony and 1,200 pieces of evidence being presented
before the jury was left to deliberate. It had been a difficult and emotionally charged time for the jury members.
Throughout the trial, they'd been shown upwards of 70 photographs of Cooper and Ross spending good times together and
multiple home videos that showed Cooper happily interacting with his parents. Some of the footage provoked their
smiles and laughter, while others held back tears. The jury deliberated for 3 and 1/2 days
before delivering the verdict for the malicious murder of Cooper as well as the remaining charges against him. Ross
Harris was found guilty on all eight counts. Ross showed little emotion as the verdict was delivered, but as the news
spread, public reaction was mixed. Some felt the evidence presented had worked in Ross' favor and were genuinely
shocked to find that he'd been found guilty. Others were vindicated in their belief
that Ross had been guilty all along with one official telling reporters outside court. I believe categorically and
unequivocally that justice has been served here today. Ross Harris was sentenced to life in
prison without the possibility of parole for malice murder and consecutive sentences of 20 years for firstdegree
child cruelty. 10 years for attempt to commit sexual exploitation of a child and one year for each count of
dissemination of harmful material to a minor. Lyanna was devastated. airing her opinion in a Facebook post.
She wrote, "For those of you who want to know if I am okay, the answer is no. I have not been okay since the moment I
was told my son was dead. I have not been okay since the moment my life was put on this path that has led to Ross
being found guilty of maliciously murdering our child." So now you may be saying justice has
been served and you are allowed your right to that opinion. But guess what? You can convict every parent that this
has ever happened to and I can promise you two things. Number one, it will never bring our children back. And
number two, it will not prevent this from happening in the future. Next summer, as this begins to happen
over and over again, ask yourself what can be done. The problem is not the parent. The
problem is a society that refuses to believe this can happen to them. Wake up, accept it, and by accepting it, you
will be protecting your child. Ross Harris's guilty verdict sparked debate among legal circles.
Regardless of personal opinion, many felt uneasy about the way the prosecution handled the case.
Questions were raised about why the evidence of Ross' extraarital affairs, inappropriate communications with
minors, and his hiring of a sex worker were allowed to be presented at a trial for the murder of a child.
Prosecutors had even presented the jury with nine enlarged photos of Ross' erect
penis as proof of the sexual images he had sent to various women. While many felt this did a good job at tarnishing
Ross' character, it did little to prove he was a killer. As far as Ross' legal team was
concerned, the evidence of Ross' deviant sexual behavior should never have been allowed to be presented to the jury in
the first place. Not only did they believe it was highly prejuditial and therefore made it
impossible for Ross to have received a fair trial, but it didn't do anything to prove that Ross had intentionally killed
his son. In January 2017, they filed a motion for a retrial, but their request was denied.
In January 2022, Ross was permitted to appeal his case to the Georgia Supreme Court. His legal team argued before the
panel of nine judges that the trial court abused its discretion by admitting the extensive evidence of Ross'
extrammarital activities, specifically his lewd exchanges with minors, his decision to hire a sex worker, and the
photos of his penis. The prosecution told the court it was necessary to present this information as
it was intrinsic to some of the charges against Ross and it also helped establish their theory about his motive
for killing Cooper. For example, his hiring a sex worker in May 2014 showed where his priorities lay
and how his behavior was escalating in the leadup to Cooper's death. The Supreme Court handed down a 155page
report examining the case against Ross Harris in detail. The report pointed out that a man
doesn't typically enhance his ability to pursue sexual relationships with women by killing his young child.
Furthermore, when a married man wants to pursue a relationship with other women,
he typically does so by cheating, getting a divorce, or in criminal situations, by murdering his partner,
not his child. The report stated that there was no evidence that Ross viewed Cooper as an
obstacle to his sexual conquest and therefore Ross' obsession with having sexual leaison with many women lacked a
logical and necessary link to the alleged crimes against Cooper. The report also pointed out that Ross
had already been meeting various women for sex since early 2013. So hiring a sex worker in May 2014 was trivial when
it came to the prosecution's case for murder. As one judge told the prosecutor at the
appeal hearing, "I will say you did a remarkable job of proving Ross is a terrible person. But proving he is a
terrible person isn't the same as proving he murdered his child." Ultimately, the panel of judges ruled 6 to3 that the
evidence regarding Ross' extrammarital affairs had an extremely unfair prejuditial impact on the jury.
While it showed that Ross was quote a philanderer, a pervert, and even a sexual predator, it did little if
anything to answer the key question of his intent when he closed the car door on Cooper that fateful day.
The Supreme Court upheld Ross' conviction for sexual exploitation of children, a felony crime for which he
had been sentenced to 10 years in prison, as well as the two misdemeanor counts of dissemination of harmful
material to a minor, each of which came with a one-year custodial sentence. But they reversed the convictions
relating to the crimes against Kooper, concluding, "Because the properly admitted evidence
that Ross Harris maliciously and intentionally left Cooper to die was far from overwhelming, we cannot say that it
is highly probable that the erroneously admitted sexual evidence did not contribute to the jury's guilty
verdicts. We cannot say for sure what was going through Ross' mind when he shut the Tucson's door on the morning of
June 18, 2014 and sealed Cooper's fate. We do not know whether he planned and executed the horrific murder of his
22-month-old son by leaving him to suffer and slowly die in a hot vehicle or rather if he made a tragic fatal
mistake by forgetting that the child whom by almost all accounts he loved and cherished was in the back seat.
While Ross Harris continued to serve the remaining four years of his sentence for
the crimes against a minor, the county district attorney began a thorough review of his case file in preparation
for a retrial for Cooper's murder. Then in May 2023, the DA's office made a shocking announcement.
They released a statement that read, "Crucial motive evidence that was admitted at the first trial in 2016 is
no longer available to the state due to the majority decision of the Supreme Court. Therefore, after much thought and
deliberation, we have made the difficult decision to not retry Justin Ross Harris
on the reversed counts of the indictment." Cooper will always be remembered by this
office and those who fought for him. This meant that Ross just had to see out the remainder of his sentence for the
crimes against a minor and would face no further action for his role in Cooper's
death. For Lyanna, this was very welcome news. Despite everything she'd been through,
she was still unwavering in her belief that Ross did not intend to kill Cooper. Lyanna hoped that the charges being
dismissed would help change the way her son was remembered. In a statement released by her lawyer,
Lyanna reiterated that Cooper was wanted, loved, and missed every single day. While this will not change anything
about my day-to-day life, I do hope it shows people what those closest to the case have been saying from the
beginning. Lyanna said Ross was a loving and proud father to Cooper. At the same time, Ross was being
a terrible husband. These two things can and did exist at the same time. Changing the narrative surrounding
Cooper's death had always been of utmost importance to Lyanna, who still couldn't
bring herself to wash the cup that Cooper last drank from on the morning that he died.
She felt very strongly that he deserved to have a better legacy than the boy whose father intended to kill him.
Lyanna told 2020 that someone once left a card on Cooper's grave that said, "I'm
sorry that you weren't loved in this life, Cooper. If you had been my son, I would have loved you."
This broke Lyanna's heart. "It's hard enough to lose your child," she said. But then to have people think that you
didn't love him and that you didn't want him, that's something that should never
have been added to the equation of having to bury your baby. In the years since Cooper died, dozens
of American children had continued to die in the same way every year. Lyanna felt very strongly that wasting
precious resources prosecuting the parents of these tragic accidents was not the answer.
She urged legislators to instead put money into developing new laws that would require all child car seats to be
equipped with alarms like was already being done in other countries. Associate Professor of Law Erica
Breitfeld explained in her article about forgotten baby syndrome for the Berkeley
Journal of Criminal Law, the market is not short on devices and initiatives that parents can use to
remind them of their baby in the car. But interestingly, none of these products are what parents think about
when they are preparing for the child's arrival. Hence, these products remain unknown to most parents.
Further, parents who are aware of these products think they have no need for them because they believe incorrectly
that they could never forget their child in the car. This is why the prosecuting
attorneys through community prosecution must educate the community and shape awareness about the risk all parents
face. Car safety officials recommend various ways that parents can protect their
children against forgotten baby syndrome. One, set up an agreement with your child
care provider to have them notify you if your child doesn't arrive at their usual
drop off time. Two, set a reminder on your phone to check in with your partner to make sure they have dropped the child
off. Three, create a visual reminder for yourself by placing your child's bag, jacket, or hat on the front passenger
seat, or force yourself to go to the back seat by placing your own bag, lunch, or laptop there every day.
Ross Harris was released from jail in June 2025. The matter of whether or not he
intentionally left Cooper in his car that day remains a topic of public debate. It's an experience that some other
parents who have faced a similar tragedy can relate to. Erica Breitfeld explains
this is because quote when a child dies from a hot car death we have a visceral response to blame someone. Someone must
have done something wrong for a child to have suffered. And this is a natural normal reaction, but it does not mean it
is the right one. Neuroscientist Dr. David Diamond echoes this sentiment. Speaking about forgotten baby syndrome
to Washington Poster journalist Gene Weingarten, Dr. Diamond said, "Memory is a machine and it is not
flawless. Our conscious mind prioritizes things by importance, but on a cellular
level, our memory does not. If you're capable of forgetting your cell phone, you are potentially capable of
forgetting your child. After studying various cases involving hot car deaths and speaking to many
survivors of similar tragedies, Gene Weingarten concluded, "There may be no act of human failing
that more fundamentally challenges our society's views about crime, punishment, justice, and mercy."
While Ross Harris's lawyer said that Ross has always accepted the moral responsibility for Cooper's death, the
truth about what went through his mind back in June 2014 is something only Ross knows for sure.
As Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice David E. Namias wrote in Ross' appeal report,
"This is in many ways an extraordinary case. In the dozens of murder cases this court considers each year, rarely do we
see a case in which diametrically opposed conclusions could be reached by fair-minded jurors from the same
evidence. A fair reading of the cold appellet record presents logical common sense
cases both for Harris's guilt and his innocence. Was he the heartless, sexcrazed killer
of the state's telling? Or a deeply flawed but loving father overwhelmed by the demands of life and work whose worst
day resulted in his most costly mistake. [Music]

When doting mother Leanna Harris arrived to pick up her 22-month-old son Cooper Harris from daycare in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 18 2014, she was shocked to find that Cooper wasn’t there. She soon discovered that her husband, Ross Harris, had made a fatal mistake, leaving Cooper to die in the backseat of his hot car after forgetting to drop him off on his way to work.

As details about Cooper’s death emerged, many questions arose. Was this another innocent family who had fallen victim to the phenomenon known as Forgotten Baby Syndrome, or was something more sinister at play?

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Creative direction – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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Brief Summary

Ross Harris was convicted of murdering his son Cooper after leaving him in a hot car, but his conviction was later overturned on appeal.

Key points

Tragic Accident or Negligence?. The story of Ross Harris raises questions about parental responsibility and tragic accidents.
Forgotten Baby Syndrome Explained. Experts discuss the psychological phenomenon that leads parents to forget their children in cars.
Public Outcry Over Charges. Ross Harris faces murder charges, sparking petitions and public defense from friends and family.
Lyanna's Support for Ross. During Cooper's funeral, Lyanna publicly supports Ross, stating she holds no anger towards him.
Ross's Double Life Revealed. Investigators uncover Ross's secret life, revealing his sexual conversations with multiple women.
Suspicious Internet Activity. Ross's internet history raises red flags, including searches for sex work and how to survive in prison.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What have I done? I killed my son.

Ross's desperate realization after finding Cooper unresponsive.

5:23WatchAug 23, 2025

Tension

80/ 100High tension

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