Cheyanne Harris and Zachary Koehn are the parents of a 4-month-old baby boy, Sterling Koehn. Sterling’s dead body was discovered in a baby swing inside their home. According to the Des Moines Register , the baby was discovered to have not been taken out of the baby seat in at least one week . A medical examiner uncovered maggots in the baby’s clothes and his skin, which the examiner speculates that the baby had not had his diaper changed, bathed, nor taken out of the seat in at least one week. This likely indicates that the baby may have been dead for at least one week or longer.
The above booking photos of Cheyanne and Zachary were given out by the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office in New Hampton, Iowa. Harris and Koehn hail from Alta Vista, which is located approximately 125 miles northeast of Des Moines. According to CTV News , the Iowa couple has been charged with murder in the wake of the shocking circumstances surrounding the death of their 4-month-old son and maggot infestation.
Cheyanne is 20 years of age, Zachary is 28. Koehn and Harris were arrested on Wednesday, October 25, and their case is reverberating throughout social media, with thousands of social shares for articles describing the condition in which Sterling was discovered.
Koehn and Cheyanne face charges of child endangerment, as well as first-degree murder. While their initial court hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, November 2, the couple does not have lawyers listed representing them yet via court records.
It is not clear the exact date that Sterling died. However, cops and medical personnel were called to the apartment of Koehn and Cheyanne on Wednesday, August 30. That was the day that the baby was found dead in the swing in the Alta Vista apartment. The cause of death of Sterling was neglect, according to The Courier .
With the parents’ full names listed as Zachary Paul Koehn and Cheyanne Renae Harris, the duo is listed as the biological parents of Sterling Daniel Koehn. Their arrest followed a two-month investigation into the tragedy, with their bond set at $100,000 — cash only. Sterling weighed less than seven pounds when found. Koehn claimed that Harris had fed Sterling the morning of the day he was found dead, but the maggot infestation indicated a different timeline for the death of the baby in the family’s apartment on Hilltop Avenue.
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[Featured Image by Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office/AP Images]