After Justin Ross Harris and his 22-month-old son Cooper left breakfast at the Chick-fil-A that day, how long did it take Harris to forget that Cooper was in the car?

When Harris opened his car door after noon to throw something into the front seat, shouldn’t he have noticed the body of his son in the rear seat?

Even hours after Cooper’s body was removed from the SUV later that day, could investigators still smell the stench of decomposition in the vehicle?

Police have definitive answers for each of these questions. But in Episode 2 of our podcast “Breakdown – Death in a Hot Car: Mistake or Murder?” AJC legal affairs writer Bill Rankin comes up with some different answers altogether.

You can listen to Rankin breaking down the case here, or download the program at the podcast section of the iTunes Store (or your favorite podcast app).

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Residents Angela Vaughn, Amber Miller and Montavious Vaughn show conditions in their apartment at Bolden Townhomes in Atlanta on Friday, June 6, 2025. Tenants of the community, along with the Housing Justice League, held a press conference to talk about dangerous conditions and forced evictions. (Arvin Temkar / AJC)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

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