Parents charged after boy, 5, dies inside hot car while family hosted a party

Wednesday, September 16, 2026 - A 5-year-old boy in Arizona di£d after being left in a sweltering vehicle while his parents hosted a party.

Theo Sabo was left in his family’s car around 1 p.m. Sunday, September 13, after returning home from a baptism of another child at their church.  

Sabo’s family was hosting a party with around 50 friends and relatives when, more than two-and-a-half hours later, they realized Theo was missing. 

The family discovered the boy unresponsive in their sweltering vehicle outside their Peoria home — where temperatures reached a scorching 106 degrees that day, historical forecast records show. 

CPR was administered before Theo was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was tragically pronounced de@d. 

Theo’s parents, Mihail Sabo, 50, and Anca Sabo, 45, were charged with negligent homicide and child abuse. 

The couple have four other children aged 18, 15, 14, and 9. 

Mihail reportedly told police that he asked his 14-year-old son to get Theo out of the car upon arriving home from the baptism. 

But the teen told cops that he was never asked to do so.  

During separate court hearings on Monday, September 14, the boy’s mother Anca was visibly upset and sobbing while her husband Mihail kept quiet with his head down, according to a livestream of the Maricopa County Superior Court. 

“This was a, I can’t overstress this, a tragedy,” the couple’s defense attorney Leah Dodd told the court during Anca’s hearing.  

Dodd doubled-down on the account of Mihail asking their 14-year-old son to get Theo out of the car.  

“Mom is hosting a party at their home, assumes dad is gonna get [Theo]. Dad asks the 14-year-old. That’s not asking a young child to get another child out of the vehicle,’ Dodd argued, while Anca clutched her chest and wept.  

Theo “was sleeping, and there was a lot going on, but this does not deviate from what a normal person would do in this situation,” the defense attorney continued.  

Meanwhile, Maricopa County Attorney Brooke Gaunt argued that “the child was in the car for more than two and a half hours and the parents were not aware of his location during that whole time.” 

The couple’s defense attorney asserted that criminally negligent homicide and child abuse charges were not warranted in this case and called their son’s de@th “an unimaginable tragedy. 

“She called 911, she administered life-saving efforts, she answered all questions of detectives. This is not someone who is running away,” Dodd argued. 

“Everything that she and her husband did upon finding the child in the vehicle was standard care.”