Hudley Owen Hamlett would have turned two on Saturday. Instead, the community gathered and held a candlelight vigil in his memory, just two days after the toddler was found unresponsive in the back seat of a car.

The discovery was made on Thursday afternoon when Hudley’s foster father, Brian Dalton, arrived at Chestnut Academy daycare centre around 3.30pm to collect the young boy. This was when the staff told Mr Dalton that Hudley had never been dropped off.

It was only then that Mr Dalton realised what had happened.

According to police, Hudley had been left strapped in the back of Mr Dalton’s vehicle for more than eight hours while Mr Dalton went to work. Temperatures in Amherst County had climbed to 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius).

Emergency responders and daycare staff at

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