Joel Gray (Photo from Marshall Donnelly Combs Funeral Home website)NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A memorial service will be held Saturday for the infant who died after being left in a hot car earlier this week.
Five-month-old Joel Gray was found deceased in his mother's minivan after she went to pick him from daycare at Donelson Heights United Methodist Church on Tuesday afternoon and discovered she never dropped him off.
Police said Joel's mother, 38-year-old Stephanie Gray, told officials she took her two younger children, ages 6 and 9, to school and then returned home to pick up her 11-year-old son and baby Joel. She then dropped off her 11-year-old at school and returned home without dropping Joel off at his daycare.
It's believed the baby instead remained in the backseat for hours as the van sat parked in the family's driveway. Eventually, police said he was overcome by the heat.
Gray was so overcome with emotion when she learned of her son's death, she was taken to the hospital.
Officials have not yet filed any charges against her.
An obituary said the service will be held at St. Matthews Catholic Church at 1 p.m. Saturday. In lieu of flowers, the family requests gifts be sent to the "Joel Dixon Gray benefit fund" at Regions Bank.
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