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Community raises more than $5K for family of 3-year-old boy who died in hot car outside Wendy’s

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A Georgia community has raised more than $5,000 to help the family of a 3-year-old boy who died in a hot car in Columbus last week.

Kendrick Engram Jr. died on June 26 after he was found in a family member’s car outside a Wendy’s.

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The child had been in the car for about two hours and 45 minutes by the time he was found dead, Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan told ABC News.

According to the family, the child had been at church and running errands with his grandmother and sisters, but didn’t get out of the car when the family got home. Hours later, his uncle took the car to the Wendy’s, about the same time that the child’s grandmother and siblings realized he wasn’t taking a nap like they thought..

The grandmother called the child’s uncle, who found him unresponsive in the car.

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Family members said in a GoFundMe that Engram Jr. died of asphyxia.

“Kendrick was loved by his mother, Yolanda Thomas, father, Kendrick Engram, along with six siblings and a host of family and friends,” family said on the fundraising site. “He was energetic, loving and full of life!”

The family plans to use funds donated to the GoFundMe to pay for the child’s funeral and burial expenses.

On Thursday, a 12-month-old baby was found dead inside a car outside an Athens-area Walgreens where the child’s mother worked.

It’s unclear if anyone is facing charges in either case.

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You can donate to the GoFundMe HERE.