The girl was found in the car by a family member more than 2 hours after the family returned home from a nearby park.

BUCKEYE, Ariz. — A 4-year-old girl has died after being found unresponsive in a hot car on Sunday, according to the Buckeye Police Department.

The department said officers were called to a home near McDowell Road and Sienna Hills Parkway just before 5 p.m. by a family member who had found the girl in the car.

Officers responded to the home and attempted to save the girl's life using CPR and an AED. Medics later took the girl to a nearby hospital where she died.

Buckeye police said the family of the girl told them that they had gone to a park near the home and returned home between 2 and 2:30 p.m.

The family assumed everyone had come inside, but after not seeing the girl for a few hours, they began searching for her, which is when she was found in the car.

"This is not the outcome that anyone wants," Carissa Planalp, a public information officer with the Buckeye Police Department said. "We train for this regularly with our partners in the fire department. Unfortunately, in this situation, this little girl did not survive."

The child was unaccounted for for at least two hours, according to police.

Buckeye police said no one has been taken into custody in connection with this case but that it is early in the investigation and that they are working to figure out the details surrounding the incident, including if the girl was restrained, if there were child locks on the car doors, if she had the opportunity to get out of the car if she wanted to, if she was distracted and if she was sleeping.

Police added that outdoor temperatures in Buckeye at the time the girl was in the car were as high as 107 degrees.

Planalp had one message for all parents, guardians and caretakers who are driving around in our triple-digit heat.

"And the message is always look before you lock," Planalp said. "Even if it's putting your wallet or your purse in the back seat with your child so that you're forced to look in that back seat before you leave your vehicle.

Planalp also mentioned a social media campaign the department took part in earlier this summer urging parents to always take their kids with them when they get out of the car.

"If you're running errands throughout the day, stop at the store, the kid comes with you. If you stop at home, you run in to grab something, the kid comes with you. Always the kid has to come with you," Planalp said. "So, it's a message that we hear often and apparently have to keep continuing to echo that message as a reminder for parents, guardians (and) caretakers to make sure that those kids, that no one is left behind in a hot vehicle."

"Calls like these are difficult for everyone involved," Planalp said. "The families, the first responders, the community at large, nobody wants to hear this news. So, what we're just trying to do is echo that message of safety, wherever you go, take the kid with you. And likewise, if you're a community member, you're in a grocery store parking lot, you're at a gas station, you see a child alone in a car, whether that car's running or not, whether the AC's on or not, call 911.

"We all know that this extreme heat, these temperatures are nothing to play with and time is absolutely of the essence."

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