Sintia Perez and Jace Hirschy, Berne, Indiana parents face felony neglect charges after their 2 year old daughter, Zaelynn Hirschy, is found dead in a closet where she slept with a space heater turned on to nearly maximum, causing the child to die of hyperthermia amid squalid living conditions.
The parents of an Indiana two year old girl found dead in a closet where temperatures had reached 109 degrees are facing felony neglect charges.
Sintia Perez, 21, and Jace Hirschy, 23, were arraigned in court on Wednesday, with each facing one count of neglect resulting in death of a dependant and two additional neglect charges connected to the condition of their other two children, a five year old and a 3 year old’s living environment with the other two children being found living in ‘extremely unhealthy’ living conditions and having lice.
All three children had been living in squalid living conditions
Both children were taken into custody by the state Department of Child Services.
Berne Police officers responded to a call about a death of their 2 year old daughter, Zaelynn Hirschy on November 27 only to find the couple’s apartment littered with trash, making it difficult to navigate. Officers found cockroaches throughout the home and a pot on the stove that contained mold, WANE reported.
The dead child was found in a closet in the bedroom, which her parents said was where she slept. The toddler was lying in a crib on a soiled mattress in a soiled diaper, WPTA reported.
Her body was discolored, with officers measuring the temperature in the closet at between 85 and 109 degrees, with the highest readings coming from the girl’s body. The also found feces in a corner of the closet. Also found in the closet was a space heater which had been left on for 21 hours, the parents said.
Put to bed at 7pm, but not checked on until 20 hours later
An autopsy later determined the child died of hyperthermia; the condition of having a body temperature greatly above normal.
A police report noted investigators, ‘felt an immediate heat difference from the main bedroom to the interior of the closet.’
According to the court documents, the child’s mother said that she put the two year old girl to bed at 7 p.m. on November 26 along with turning up a space heater ‘nearly’ all the way up. The mother said she woke up at 12:30 p.m. the next day, but neither she nor the child’s father, checked on the toddler until after 3 p.m. when they found her dead and calling police.
Perez and Hirschy are both being held at the Adams County Jail and are scheduled for a pretrial conference on February 14, 2025, with a jury trial planned for March 7, 2025.
