Parents of children left in hot car have a CYFD history – APD smashes window to get children out
Mother of the 20 month old twins was charged with child abuse in 2025
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
Two 20-month-old toddlers were left strapped in car seats for two and a half hours early Saturday morning while their father was having fun inside the Dirty Bourbon bar in Albuquerque, police said.
Security guards discovered the children in the hot car, dripping in sweat and with soiled diapers, and called authorities.
“I can’t believe I’m going to jail,” Stephan Natseway, the twins’ father, said during his arrest.
Natseway is now facing charges, including child abuse and child abandonment.
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) said it investigated two neglect reports involving Natseway in May and June, but the allegations were not substantiated.
According to Natseway’s criminal complaint, a CYFD intake report alleged he failed to take one of the children to eight follow-up medical appointments.
CYFD said Natseway “agreed to accept and continue family support services the department recommended.”
Court documents also revealed that the children’s mother, Terri Dailey, who is not accused in the hot car incident, was charged with child abuse in 2025.
According to a criminal complaint, one of the children was brought to UNM Hospital September 30 because he was not moving one of his arms. Doctors found a fracture to the upper arm.
Dailey told police, “She must have rolled on top of him while they were co-sleeping.”
The doctor quoted in the complaint said, “Terri’s explanation for the injury was not consistent with this type of injury” and noted that the fracture is commonly caused by a forceful twisting motion. The doctor expressed concern about possible child abuse.
Dailey later told police she had been drinking the night of September 29. She said after the baby’s bath, she proceeded to get one of them “out of the bath by grabbing his arm.”
Police said Dailey admitted she was “blackout drunk” while caring for the baby.
Dailey was charged with child abuse resulting in great bodily harm.
