She was only 6 years old. She was non-verbal and autistic. And when little Winter was allegedly left behind on a daycare bus in the brutal summer heat, she couldn’t call out and tell someone:
She was only 6 years old. She was non-verbal and autistic. And when little Winter was allegedly left behind on a daycare bus in the brutal summer heat, she couldn’t call out and tell someone:
“I’m still here.”
That may be the most heartbreaking part of this entire story.
Winter Skyy Jones depended on the adults entrusted with her care to know where she was.
To notice she was missing.
To check that bus.
To protect a little girl who, as her uncle Christopher put it, “couldn’t advocate for herself at all.”
Now Winter is gone.
And a devastated Tennessee family is asking a question that can never give their little girl back:
How could this happen?
Winter’s family says the 6-year-old rode transportation between a daycare facility in Cordova and Macon-Hall Elementary.
But that day, they say Winter never made it inside the school.
Instead, her family says she remained unnoticed on the vehicle for hours as outside temperatures approached 100 degrees.
Her father says his little girl’s internal body temperature reached 109 degrees.
Think about what this family is trying to comprehend.
They entrusted their 6-year-old to people who were supposed to care for her.
Winter couldn’t tell someone she had been forgotten.
She couldn’t call for help.
She needed someone to notice.
Her family says she wasn’t discovered until workers returned to the vehicle later in the day.
Winter was rushed to the hospital.
She didn’t survive.
Her dad, Bryan, has since been sharing memories of the little girl behind this tragedy.
Winter loved to swim.
She loved to dance.
She was a happy little girl.
And now her father is writing words no parent should ever have to put beside a picture of their child:
“Forever 6 ”
“DADDY LOVES YOU WINTER SKYY JONES.”
Winter’s aunt Tera Taylor is a special education teacher, an autism and neurodivergent advocate and the mother of a non-verbal autistic son herself.
Her grief comes with questions.
“Where did the ball drop?”
Was it with the daycare? The driver? The school? Somewhere in between?
The family wants answers about how a vulnerable little girl could remain unnoticed for hours.
The circumstances surrounding Winter’s death remain under investigation.
Action News 5 reports the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services confirmed it is involved in the investigation.
The station also reports the daycare’s website was suspended Thursday night and the daycare did not respond to its request for comment.
And there’s another important piece.
According to Action News 5, Tennessee daycares are required to use monitoring devices, perform bus checks and maintain daily logs of those checks.
Whether all required safety procedures were followed in Winter’s case is now among the questions her grieving family wants answered.
Memphis City Council member Jerri Green put it simply:
“Winter deserved to be safe. She deserved to be protected.”
Please surround Winter’s parents, siblings and entire family with prayers and compassion as they begin living through a loss they believe never should have happened.
And for every parent, teacher, caregiver and childcare worker reading this: what needs to change to make absolutely certain another vulnerable child is never forgotten inside a vehicle?
