A two-year-old Martha's Vineyard boy called out for his 'Dada' over and over after he was allegedly left strapped in the back of his babysitter's car for hours before his hypothermia death, his heartbroken father said.
Frankie Rodenbaugh suffered the excruciating death in March 2025, after his babysitter Aimee Cotton, 41, allegedly abandoned him without adequate clothing, food or water.
His father Matt Rodenbaugh said Cotton was 'trusted' by his family and had previously cared for his daughter, six, for three years.
He said he was stunned after watching footage of Cotton arriving at her home at around 9am before allegedly leaving his son and another child both strapped inside the car until around 1pm.
'She tortured my child,' he said. 'They enhanced the audio of the video, and he can be heard calling out for "Dada" over and over and over again, until the video went silent.'
Cotton was charged with manslaughter and is awaiting trial, as Frankie's father said the 'amount of damage she's done to our community is unimaginable.'
He said his son was his 'mini-me' and recalled how he would greet him with a 'ball of energy' every day.
'Every day I'd come home from work he would hear me coming and the dogs would bark, and he'd run to the gate here and yell, "Dada!" and (give me) a big, huge hug,' Rodenbaugh told WBZ-TV. 'He’d hug everyone. Just a super happy little kid.'
The Rodenbaugh family live in the Martha's Vineyard enclave of Massachusetts.
They said Cotton was a well-known babysitter among families in their affluent neighborhood.
'She watched my daughter, who's now six, for the first three years of her life,' Rodenbaugh said. 'She was somebody really close to us and somebody we trusted.'
Rodenbaugh said he and his wife had no idea their life would be turned upside down on the morning of March 13, 2025, when Cotton picked up Frankie from their $2.1 million home and took him to her home in Oak Bluffs.
He said hours later, Cotton allegedly called 911 saying Frankie had stopped breathing, before calling his wife to tell her the tragic news.
'She said "Frankie's in an ambulance. He's not breathing. I’m headed to the hospital now". I just kept saying "What do you mean, what happened?" She’s like "I don’t know, I don’t know anything. Aimee called me crying,"' he recalled.
Frankie was rushed to the hospital by helicopter, but his father said doctors told him early on that the prognosis was not good.
'They lost his heart rate, there’s not a lot of neurological signals going on right now. We’re not really sure what happened. He’s not doing well,' he said.
'They keep telling me "we’re very, very worried about Frankie" and that’s exactly how they would tell me. I knew, I knew what that meant.'
Rodenbaugh said he and his wife had no inclination their life would be turned upside down on the morning of March 13, 2025, when Cotton picked up Frankie from their $2.1 million property in Martha’s Vineyard.
Frankie died six days after being admitted from cardiac arrest brought on by hypothermia.
Rodenbaugh recalled that the tragedy was compounded by the death of his father, which took place at the same time that Frankie was in hospital.
The grandfather, Frank, who was Frankie's namesake, suddenly died after having a pacemaker put in.
Rodenbaugh said as he was grieving, Massachusetts State Police told him they had arrested Cotton, a move that he initially did not support.
'I remember my wife and I both were like, "You can't do that. We love Aimee. She's great",' he said.
He said police then showed him the footage of Cotton allegedly leaving his son in the car for hours without changing him or giving him any food or water.
Police alleged that Cotton admitted to leaving the children in the car, saying she went inside to run errands including cooking bacon and preparing her son's hockey bags.
Rodenbaugh said his son deteriorated while in hospital and his family made the gut-wrenching decision to turn off his life support.
'It was horrible,' he said. 'I held his hand, and I just kept saying, "Go to Pap Pap." That's what he called my dad. I held his hand for a long time and just kept saying, "Go to Pap Pap."'
The grieving father said he wants justice for his son, alleging Cotton played 'Russian roulette' with his son's life.
Cotton has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is currently free on bail.
The Daily Mail has contacted her attorney Harrison Barrow III.