MOTHER DETAINED IN DEATH OF 2 TOTS.

Byline: Sabrina Decker Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - A Simi Valley woman was in jail Sunday on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter after her two children were strapped into their car seats and left for hours in the family minivan where they died, apparently from the heat, officials said.

The boys, Jake Alexander Heath, 3, and Dylan Charles Heath, 13 months, were left Saturday afternoon in their mother's Dodge minivan in the driveway of their home - located on the 2100 block of Ralston Avenue, police said.

Their mother, Marlene Heath, 39, told police she fell asleep and forgot the toddlers were in the car, investigators said.

Temperatures in Simi Valley on Saturday reached 87 degrees, but officials estimated it could have been as much as 20 degrees hotter inside the car.

``As far as I'm concerned it is unconscionable that a person would do this,'' Simi Valley police Lt. Jon Ainsworth said. ``With all the publicity there has always been about children and animals left in cars in the summer, it can't be something people aren't aware of.''

Marlene Heath was en route to a family picnic at about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon when she, for an unreported reason, decided to turn around and go back home, police said.

She pulled into the driveway with the children still in their car seats and went inside the house where she said she fell asleep.

Police said that as a matter of course they had tested Heath for drug and alcohol use, but Heath showed no obvious signs of being under the influence.

``The No. 1 question we'd like to answer is why did she fall asleep, regardless of the impairment issue, and we hope to have that resolved very soon,'' Ainsworth said.

Heath also does not, as far as they know, suffer from a potentially related medical condition, police said.

When she awoke, Heath later told authorities, she went looking for the children and discovered that they were both still inside the minivan.

She removed the unconscious children from their car seats shortly after, took them to a nearby bedroom just off the front door of her house and called her husband.

Simi Valley police said officers responded within a minute after a 911 call at 6:13 p.m. and the children were pronounced dead on the scene by responding officials.

A coroner's exam determined that both boys died of hyperthermia, said Mike Feiler, a Ventura County deputy medical examiner.

Phillip Heath, the children's father, was working at a Westlake Village car dealership at the time of the incident.

Police immediately transported him to the Simi Valley Police Department, where his wife was being kept.

Officials described the boys' father as completely devastated following the incident. His wife was described also as extremely upset, remorseful and clearly aware of her circumstances when she was brought into police headquarters.

If convicted, Marlene Heath could face up to four years in prison for each of the two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Neighbors who asked not to be named said that the youngest boy, Dylan, had recently celebrated his first birthday party.