A dad who died by suicide on the day he was set to be jailed for leaving his toddler to die in a hot car was believed to be having an affair with the woman next door, neighbors claimed to police.
Christopher Scholtes was found dead about 5.20am on November 5 at the $1 million home in Phoenix he shared with his wife Dr Erika Scholtes.
Hours later, he was supposed to begin a 20 to 30-year prison sentence for the second-degree murder of his daughter Parker, two, who died in July 2024.
Scholtes, 38, was ‘found deceased in his car, which was parked in the garage’, police said. Carbon monoxide poisoning is being investigated as the cause of death.
Erika staunchly defended her husband for the 16 months following Scholtes leaving Parker in 108F heat for three hours, even calling her death ‘a mistake’.
But the Daily Mail can reveal neighbors claimed to police that Scholtes did not reciprocate his wife’s loyalty.
They said he had a ‘special relationship’ with Katelyn Schacht, 37, a married sales executive who lived next door, and there was a ‘common consensus’ in the neighborhood that they were having an affair.
Detailed police incident reports of the investigation into Parker’s death seen by the Daily Mail included records of interviews with residents as officers canvassed the neighborhood.
Chris Scholtes (left) killed himself at his family home in Phoenix on November 5. Scholtes’s wife Dr Erika Scholtes is seen holding daughter Parker, 2, who died in a hot car in July 2024
Parker had been left to sleep in the family’s Acura with its air conditioning turned on. Her father admitted her second-degree murder last month and had been facing 20-30 years without parole when he was found dead
Neighbors claimed Scholtes was having an affair with Katelyn Schacht, 37, (pictured) a married sales executive who lived next door
Their relationship came up when neighbor Michael Kramer told police that Scholtes’ three young girls often escaped from the house and wandered the streets.
He said Schacht ‘had many stories’ about these incidents, but may be unwilling to discuss them with police.
‘[Kramer] stated that a common consensus in the neighborhood, although not confirmed, was that Katelyn and Christopher were having an affair, and that Katelyn would not come forward with what information she had due to this,’ police wrote.
Another neighbor, Kristine Verdugo, said she did not believe Schacht would come forward to law enforcement due to her close relationship with Scholtes.
A third neighbor, Sarah Godsil, told the officers how neighbors several times formed ‘search parties’ when Scholtes’ daughters and pets got out of the house when he was sleeping ‘or something else happens’.
Godsil told police that Schacht frequently made excuses for Scholtes and would therefore be unlikely to cooperate with police.
‘Sarah’s concern… is that Chris and Kate have a “special relationship” and she may not be forthcoming with information,’ police wrote in their report.
‘Sarah said Kate is in a difficult situation herself with her husband. She is not sure if Kate would be willing to share her specific stories.’
Godsil said later that she was not aware of an affair personally but ‘some of the moms thought something was going on’.
Scholtes’ wife Erika, 37, was an anesthesiologist at the same hospital her daughter was rushed to staunchly defended her husband for the 16 months after Parker died
Schacht (right) with her husband Jon, who were both interviewed by police
Neighbors’ police statements suggested Scholtes and Schacht may have struck up a relationship as his children would often walk around the block to get to her home without their father knowing they left.
‘Kate would call him and say “hey your kids are here again”,’ Godsil told police, explaining this dated back to when Schacht lived in the house behind Scholtes.
Godsil detailed how Schacht would tell neighborhood moms ‘oh you should send your kids with Chris’ and was ‘very close with him’.
‘Sarah and the other moms said they ‘would never, our gut said no’. Kate would tell the other moms they (she and Chris’ kids) would have sleepovers all the time,’ police wrote.
Schacht is the US sales director at software firm Eventsforce and previously was a sales executive at Hyatt and then Marriot.
She describes herself as an ‘out-of-the box thinker, creativity coordinator, and lean-in advocate’.
‘If I could describe myself in one word? Passionate. In all that I do, whether it be in my professional or personal life, I take pride knowing that I put my all in it,’ her LinkedIn profile read.
Neither Schacht nor Erika Scholtes returned messages from the Daily Mail asking for comment on the affair claims.
Scholtes left Parker napping with the air-conditioning on and the car running outside his then-home during 90F weather
Schacht was interviewed with her husband Jon hours after Parker’s death, but did not discuss past incidents of Scholtes’ negligent parenting.
She instead explained how Parker’s two sisters came to her door after the toddler was found unresponsive in the car.
‘Kate said they were upset (“in tears”) and they said that Parker wasn’t breathing and that Erika was giving her CPR,’ police wrote.
‘They said they were scared and asked if they could ‘hang out’ at their house for a little while.
‘She said [one of the girls] also told her Parker was not breathing or moving and that “Mommy and daddy are calling 911 and mommy is giving her CPR”.’
Schacht gave a similar story to local TV during reports in the days after Parker’s death, and has been described as the only neighbor with anything good to say about Scholtes.
‘I got a knock on the door and it’s a sound that I literally will never forget,’ she told KOLD.
‘We open the door and we just see tears and fear and… ghost little faces and they run in and say, ‘Can we come here, Mommy and Daddy told us to come here, Parker isn’t breathing, Mommy is giving her CPR.’
Schacht and her husband have at least two children whom neighbors said regularly went on playdates with Scholtes’ daughters
None of Scholtes’s neighbors recalled him having a job in the almost five years he lived at the Marana house, and he appeared to be a full-time house-husband.
Erika worked long hours as an anesthesiologist at Banner University Medical Center, the same hospital Parker was taken to.
She was at work while Parker slowly died in the 2023 Acura MDX sitting in the driveway, and discoverer her after arriving home after 4pm.
By that time, Parker had been locked in the car for more than three hours – since 12.53pm, according to surveillance footage.
Despite this, Erika stuck by Scholtes and even petitioned the court, successfully, for bail and for him to be allowed to go on a family holiday to Maui.
She also bought them a stunning $1.025 million four-bedroom, 2,369sqft gaudy Italian villa-style home in Phoenix in April, boasting a huge pool and neo-classical column façade.
But Erika also frequently expressed her frustrations with her husband’s drinking, drunk driving, and risky parenting.
‘You haven’t shown me you can stop putting the girls in danger or not treat me badly,’ she told him on March 11 last year in a text exchanged included in police files.
‘Even yesterday, you drove home drunk with two minors. You drink to excess every time. You can never have just one. I’ve been asking for three years to cut back and it’s actually gotten worse.’
Despite her husband’s extreme negligence killing their toddler, Erika stuck by Scholtes and even petitioned the court, successfully, for bail and for him to be allowed to go on a family holiday to Maui
Schacht met her husband at university (pictured in their first photo together) and have been together ever since
Scholtes promised to ‘find relief and happiness elsewhere’ but Erika countered that the last time he did that he merely replaced booze with cocaine.
‘At least this one is legal, right?’ he replied.
‘I’m a piece of sh*t addict and I need to get addicted to healthy things like running again.’
But just ten days later she raged at him for allegedly driving 138mph after drinking, with Parker in the car, calling both ‘sh***y decisions’.
‘You hate me,’ he replied. ‘And she was sleeping, it’s fine.’
Erika referenced these frustrations in a text exchange with her husband on her way to the hospital the day Parker died.
‘I told you to stop leaving them in the car. How many times have I told you,’ she wrote.
Scholtes replied: ‘Babe I’m sorry! Oh my go[d]! I can’t believe this.’
Erika then broke the bad news: ‘We’ve lost her. She was perfect.’
‘Babe!!! Our family How could I do this? Detectives are coming for me. I’m going to prison,’ Scholtes wrote back.
Scholtes is pictured with Parker on the day she was born
Police outside the house in Marana, north of Tucson, Arizona, as they investigated the scene. Parker was left in the blue Acura SUV behind the police tape
Scholtes then told Erika he was on his way to the hospital, asking ‘Anything? Please god’, but his wife told him: ‘No she was pronounced.’
‘I killed our baby. This can’ t be real,’ Scholtes wrote.
However, when asked by police Erika ‘denied any previous issues of this nature or other critical incidents involving the kids and her husband’.
Erika’s mother, Cynthia King, told police in an interview in January that her daughter’s image of a ‘perfect family’ was a fantasy.
‘She is dealing with [Parker’s death] alone. And it is hard for her to imagine her family that she thought she had, although it wasn’t what she was on the outside,’ police wrote that she told them.
‘There was a lot of s**t happening behind closed doors, but she wanted that image of the perfect family. And it was just an image.
‘There were probably times of happiness, but it wasn’t what everybody saw. So, she has to deal with that first.’
Their other two children, then aged nine and five, told police their father regularly left all three siblings alone in the car.
The Scholtes family pictured together in happier times. Dr Erika Scholtes must now contend with the loss of her husband and her youngest daughter
Scholtes was found dead about 5.20am on Wednesday in his car in the garage (left) of the $1 million home in Phoenix
Scholtes left Parker napping with the air-conditioning on, but he lost track of time while he played on his PlayStation, drank booze and watched adult videos, and the vehicle shut off.
The Pima County Medical Examiner said the temperature inside the car was 108.9F when first responders arrived and confirmed Parker died of heat exposure.
Their other kids told police Scholtes ‘got distracted by playing his game and putting his food away’, according to the criminal complaint.
A PlayStation and other electronics were taken away as evidence.
Prosecutors wrote in court documents that Scholtes also searched the internet for men’s clothing at Nordstrom and for pornography from 2.02pm to 2.30pm.
The killer dad rejected a plea deal in March that would have seen him serve up to 10 years behind bars.
Just six months later, he had no choice but to accept a far worse deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder and be jailed for 20 to 30 years without parole.
But he was allowed to stay out on bail until November 5, when he would be taken into custody, and used that time to plan his suicide.
