After her son died inside a hot car over Memorial Day weekend, a local mom is speaking out in hopes of saving another child's life.
"A child died. It's not like he just scraped his knee. He's dead," said Melony Jacobs, of Walnut, Illinois.
Five-year-old Logan Jacobs, of Princeton, Illinois, died of heatstroke after he was discovered in a car, with the windows up and the doors locked, outside his dad's house.
It was 83 degrees outside.
"The neighbor did CPR. The paramedics came. I rushed to the hospital. They were trying to get his temperature down to see if his organs would start, because your organs shut down once you reach a certain temperature," Jacobs said.
But there was nothing doctors could do.
"It only takes seven minutes for somebody to die in a (hot) car. Seven minutes," Jacobs said.
Authorities have said the little boy was in the care of his father, and his fiancee, who had full custody. His dad thought Logan was in his bedroom playing video games.
Police say the father started looking for Logan about 45 minutes later, and found him about an hour later in the vehicle with a computer tablet plugged into the car charger.
Logan's mom says she still doesn't believe she has all the answers.
"I don't know what he was doing there, or why someone didn't check sooner," Jacobs said, adding she doesn't understand why the doors were locked, and why Logan didn't just unlock them. "I have a ton of questions. He was smart. He's like a five-year old McGyver."
Logan is one of at least 17 children in the United States who have died in a hot car. Some were left by mistake, others entered the vehicle on their own, unattended.
"It's the hardest thing you'll have to deal with. The guilt, the sadness, the heartbreak. My son's already a statistic for 2014. He was my baby. He was gonna be the pitcher on his baseball team, but he never got to play one game," Jacobs said.
She also feels there should be some sort of accountability and, maybe, punishment needed in the case.
"In my eyes, I feel it was neglect. Forty-five minutes is a long time," Jacobs said. "It was a mistake, but it was a bad mistake."
In the end though, she hopes parents and caregivers learn from the mistake.
"Pay attention. Pay close attention. It could happen to you," she said.