An Oregon mother who allegedly forgot to take her 21-month-old daughter to day care and instead left her in the car as she went to her nursing job, asked prosecutors to drop the second-degree manslaughter charges they filed against her.

The Oregonian reported that Nicole Engler’s lawyer David Terry wrote in a statement Thursday that his client spent 15 years trying to conceive Remington, the daughter who died last week in a hot car outside Evergreen Family Medicine. Remington’s father typically took the toddler to day care but, on the day in question, Nicole let her husband sleep and intended to drop their daughter off before heading to work, Terry said.

Upon making the grisly discovery, Terry said Nicole grabbed her lifeless daughter and, while in hysterics, tripped in the parking lot.

The defense attorney claimed the mother has been extremely distraught following her daughter’s death. So much so, that she allegedly ripped out clumps of her hair and begged jailers to let her commit suicide.

“It was one of the saddest moments of my 40-year career,” Terry said, recalling the moment the mother and father saw their deceased daughter in a hospital examination room.

 “And I sat with her [Nicole] while she held the light of her life.”

The lawyer’s plea to prosecutors came the same day the Douglas County Medical Examiner’s office deemed the toddler’s death an accident. In his statement, he indicated that Nicole possibly suffered from “lapsed memory” on the day in question. To prove his case, he’s elicited the help of University of South Florida professor Dr. David Diamond, an expert of the neurological phenomenon who called the Oregon case “the most textbook of textbook cases,” according to WQEN.

The Oregon mother was recently released from jail after posting $50,000 bond. Multiple media reports stated that the toddler was laid to rest in a private ceremony on Thursday.

[Featured Image: Peter, Remington, and Nicole Engler/Provided]