A despondent man in Chesterfield, Virginia committed suicide by gunshot on Tuesday, after he found his 18-month-old son dead in the back of his overheated car outside his place of work.

The unidentified father was found dead by police in the woods near his home. They had been notified that a man was threatening to kill himself.

Apparently, the father had left the child in the car for at least three hours while he went to work. When he found the child, he drove back to his house, brought the infant into the house, and went into the woods. 

“This is a horrible tragedy on so many levels,” Chesterfield Police Lt. Col. Christopher Hensley said.

The family, concerned about the toddler not showing up for daycare, had alerted the police. A family member said they had spoken to the father on the phone and that there was possibly a dead child in the house. Police responded to the family home and found the infant.

“Our hearts go out to the family and friends that are going to deal with this, but we would be remiss in not taking the opportunity for people to take this moment and realize how important it is to obviously check your vehicles,” Hensley continued. 

Nine hundred fourteen children have died due to Pediatric Vehicular Heatstroke (PVH) since 1998, according to No Heat Stroke. Seven children have died this year.