Mother of child who died in hot car pleads guilty to manslaughter in Bangor
A Pennsylvania woman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the death of her daughter, who was left in a hot car that was parked in Milford last summer.
Kelly Sanders Brown, 41, entered her plea in Penobscot County Superior Court in Bangor on Friday, her attorney confirmed. She agreed, under a plea deal with prosecutors, to serve between 20 and 25 years in prison.
A judge reserved ruling on whether to approve the agreement until Brown’s sentencing, which was not yet scheduled on Friday afternoon, according to a clerk for the court.
According to a police affidavit, Brown left her 3-year-old daughter, Fiona, alone in a car at a convenience store in Milford. Police found the girl and their dog, also deceased, after Brown’s mother called for a welfare check.
Brown and her daughter were in Maine from Havertown, Pennsylvania, to visit family, according to court records. Brown told police they had been camping before parking at the convenience store, where she said she left Fiona in the car around 2 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2025, a Saturday, to throw away some trash.
Police said Brown told them she fell into the river behind the gas station, struggled to get back up, and was carried downstream. In the affidavit, police noted her clothes were dry when they spoke. Surveillance footage from the convenience store showed that Brown had left the parking lot at around 6 a.m. that Saturday morning, several hours earlier than reported, police said.
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Brown’s attorney, Jeffrey Silverstein, said in a call on Friday they still disagree with the state’s case.
“She was suffering from mental health issues that were clouding her judgment and perception, and distracted her on that day,” Silverstein said. “She can’t even believe that it happened, and that it happened at her hand.”
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Silverstein said Brown had stopped taking mental health medications after her doctor’s office closed. He said she had no criminal history and that people in her life knew at the time that she had been acting unusually.
According to the police affidavit, officers spoke with Brown’s mother, who said Brown had been hallucinating, “hearing voices of shamans and seeing people that weren’t there.” She also reported concerns with Brown’s recent social media activity.
By October, following her arrest, Silverstein said Brown resumed taking medication. Silverstein said his client is willing to “pay the price,” but that he believes the most reasonable sentence is 20 years. He said the death of Brown’s daughter is “worse than a punishment that any judge could impose.”
A spokesperson for the Office of the Maine Attorney General declined to comment on the case on Friday.
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Tagged: bangor, court, crime, penobscot county superior court
Emily Allen covers courts for the Portland Press Herald. It's her favorite beat so far — before moving to Maine in 2022, she reported on a wide range of topics for public radio in West Virginia and was. More by Emily Allen
