Iowa Couple Charged In Death Of 4-Month-Old Found Covered In Maggots

A northern Iowa couple has been charged with murder in the death of their four-month-old son, whose body was discovered covered in maggots body on a baby swing in the family's home, reports said Thursday.

Cheyanne Harris, 20, and Zachary Koehn, 28, were arrested Wednesday, on charges of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death, the Chickasaw County Sheriff's Office said.

"The facts of this case go far beyond neglect and show circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life," read a criminal complaint regarding the case provided to BuzzFeed News.

Their son, Sterling Daniel Koehn, was found dead on the afternoon of Aug. 30, after Koehn called 911 for an ambulance to the couple’s house in Alta Vista, Iowa, according to the complaint.

Koehn allegedly told the 911 dispatcher that his girlfriend, Cheyanne, had fed their four-month-old baby, Sterling, at 9 a.m. EDT on that day and he was fine. He said that when she checked on him again around 11 or 11:30 a.m. EDT the baby was unresponsive, USA Today reported.

When the authorities reached the couple's house in Alta Visa, they found the baby already dead on a baby swing inside one of the bedrooms. After an autopsy was conducted on the baby’s body, it was found that Sterling was underweight at less than seven pounds and only 14 inches long, placing him below the 5th percentile in size and weight.

His body was covered with maggots in "various stages of development" in his clothing and on his skin, the complaint said. A forensic examination of the maggots on his body also revealed the four-month-old baby had not had a diaper change in almost over a week. He had also not been bathed or removed from the swing in more than seven days.

The medical examiner declared the infant's death a homicide caused by a "failure to provide critical care."

“The study of the maggots growth and development indicated that the child had not had a diaper change, bath, or been removed from the seat in over a week," the sheriff’s deputy who filed the report wrote.

At first, Koehn told the police that Sterling died after the 911 call, but he and his girlfriend said in subsequent statements that they had last checked on the baby the previous day. Their explanations appeared to be inconsistent with the autopsy results. Authorities said the parents' account of how Sterling died was "inconsistent" after they conducted the examinations on the child.

Dennis Klein, the chief state medical examiner in the Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office, said that all cases that involved babies — especially homicides — are "pretty horrific and difficult to deal with." He explained that the details of Sterling's death included in the complaint affidavit as "pretty explicit," the Chicago Tribune reported.

The couple reportedly has an older child who also lives in the same house, according to court documents.

Harris and Koehn were jailed in Chickasaw County. They are scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 2. If convicted, the two could face life imprisonment.

Koehn and Harris are being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond, according to the Chickasaw County Sheriff's Office.