The parents of a 2-year-old girl who died, reportedly after a heater in their apartment raised the temperature in the girl’s room to a lethal level, filed an $8 million lawsuit this week. 
 
 Taqwa Dakhlalla was a healthy little girl but died last Dec. 11 when the heater and the thermostat in her room malfunctioned as she slept, said Jane Paulson, a Portland attorney representing the girl’s estate. Taqwa’s parents -- Janna Walton and Abdullah Dakhlalla -- found their daughter the next morning in her crib, Paulson said. 
 
 The lawsuit faults apartment owners Cathedral Park Investments LLC and the apartment management company Gordon Properties Inc. The family's apartment was in the 8300 block of North Willamette Boulevard. 
 
 Carl Rodrigues, a Portland attorney representing the defendants, said much more investigation into the incident needs to be done, but so far he’s found no liability on the part of his clients. 
 
 Taqwa’s family also recently filed a lawsuit in Washington against the company, Cadet heaters, that’s believed to have distributed the heater, Paulson said. 
 
 The Oregon Health Authority listed Taqwa's cause of death as hyperthermia, or overheating. 
 
 In April, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office sent Gordon Properties a letter stating that the thermostat in Taqwa's room was reportedly set to 62 degrees, but the temperature next to the girl's crib reached 90 degrees or higher as the heater apparently kept running. The DA's office said that during testing after the girl's death, the air blowing from the heater hovered between 110 and 115 degrees, and spiked once to 200 degrees. 
 
 The DA's office asked Gordon Properties to inspect the wall heater in the apartment and any other apartments with similar heaters. The letter stated that if necessary, the company should replace the heaters. 
 
 Taqwa was an only child, although her mother gave birth to a second child in September. 
 
 Walton has posted several photos, videos and entries about the couple’s enormous loss. 
 
 “Today marks 6 months without your little giggles, 26 weeks without our cuddle sessions, 182 days without our countless kisses but it also marks 4380 hours of you still making your baba’s life and mines ceaselessly better,” Walton wrote in one post. 
 
 “I love you so much, Taqwa," Walton continued. "Mommy has to rediscover herself because you were all she ever wanted.” 
 
 The lawsuit was filed Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. 
 
 -- Aimee Green 
 
 agreen@oregonian.com 
 
 o_aimee ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 ST. CHARLES, MO (KTVI) – The mysterious death of a two year old child in St. Charles is no longer a mystery and that the death is now a criminal investigation. A St. Charles toddler died of hyperthermia, or extreme heat, after being left alone in a room for approximately 38 hours with a space heater that never turned off. 
 
 On Sunday, December 20, the mother, Kathleen M. Peacock, 22, discovered her child, Braydon, 2, was dead and ran to a neighbor’s home in the Elm Point Mobile Home Village. One of those neighbors ran to see if she could help. That neighbor said the child's room was extremely hot. 
 
 An autopsy was conducted to determine the cause of child’s death. 
 
 St. Charles Police said Tuesday that the child’s parents were cooking methamphetamine at the time of the child’s death. Authorities says the couple ignored the child's cries while they were on a weekend drug binge at their home. 
 
 Peacock, and the father, Lucas R. Barnes, 25, are facing charges of child abuse and neglect and manufacturing meth. 
 
 Police say that Peacock is pregnant. 
 
 Hyperthermia is an elevated body temperature that happens when a body produces or absorbs more heat than it can release. 
 
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 Relatives of the 2-year-old and neighbors in the Elm Point Mobile Home Village say they are devastated. 
 
 One relative says Braydon appeared malnourished recently. She had distanced herself from the child's parents because she says they had a problem using drugs. She hopes the parents receive the maximum punishment if they are convicted. 
 
 Neighbors say they too had distanced themselves from the couple. Christopher Garcia says his girlfriend ran into the child's trailer after the little boy's mother started shouting for help. She says it felt like more than 100 degrees in the boys room. 
 
 "I just know that baby is in a better place. He was innocent. He was the most innocent most pure human being that could have happened. So you know he's an angel in heaven right now. I'd like to believe that." said neighbor Christopher Garcia. 
 
 "This is such a tragic event that's happened. I think if more people knew of our services. Knew that we are here and available and didn't have that fear of using us. We would see more use of the nursery." said Jill Kneemiller of the St. Louis Crisis Nursery. 
 
 Relatives of the family say they want people know there are other children who may be in the same situation and are in need of help. They hope they'll get help before another innocent life is lost.
– Two-year-old Taqwa Dakhlalla was "all [her mother] ever wanted," a little girl who made the lives of her parents "ceaselessly better," according to Facebook posts. Then tragedy struck. On Dec. 11, 2016, Janna Walton and Abdullah Dakhlalla put their daughter to sleep in a room in their Portland, Ore., apartment with the temperature set at 62 degrees. Unbeknownst to the parents, the temperature would only rise as a heater continued to pump hot air into the room—where Taqwa was discovered the next morning, dead of overheating, according to lawsuit filed Monday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. It cites a notice from the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office stating the temperature near Taqwa's crib may have reached higher than 90 degrees, while tests showed air flowing from the heater ranged from 110 to 200 degrees, reports the Oregonian. The lawsuit also notes the DA's office sent a letter to apartment management company Gordon Properties in April 2017 stating all wall heaters in the building should be inspected and, if necessary, replaced. The lawsuit, seeking $8 million, names both Gordon Properties and apartment owner Cathedral Park Investments, though a lawyer for the defendants says there's no evidence of liability. A separate lawsuit filed in Washington state targets Cadet Heaters, which distributed the faulty device, according to a lawyer representing Walton and Dakhlalla. In a feature earlier this year, the Atlantic described Taqwa's death as only the latest tragedy to befall the family. Dakhlalla's mother had died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma only months earlier. Shortly before that death, Dakhlalla's brother pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS. More on that here.