Jailed: Mother whose children died after she left them in car overnight

A young mother whose children died after she left them in a car overnight has been jailed for 40 years.

Amanda Hawkins, 21, left her one and two-year-old daughters in her car for more than 15 hours while she smoked marijuana with a friend.

Temperatures had reached almost 32 degrees by the time she returned to her car in Kerrville, Texas, which had the windows closed.

After finding the girls, Ms Hawkins ran cold water on them in a bathtub, while Googling on ways to revive people from heat exhaustion, according to the Hill Country Breaking News.

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The mother claimed the girls had been smelling flowers in a park when they fell ill, but did not take them to hospital initially because she “did not want to get into trouble.”

The girls died around 5pm on June 8 2017, hours after Ms Hawkins found the pair unconscious.

The case was labelled “by far the most horrific case of child endangerment that I have seen in 37 years” by Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer.

Judge N. Keith Williams said he would have given her more punishment if possible.

He added: “People in our community take better care of their pets than you took care of your kids.”

Ms Hawkins allegedly sent text messages to family members telling them that her and a friend were staying in San Antonio with the girls and taking them to Seaworld the next day while they were in hospital.

Dr John Gebhart, who treated the children, said that the girls most likely went into “profound” shock while they were left in the hot car and probably died very painful deaths.

She pleaded guilty earlier this year to child abandonment and endangerment and injury to a child.