Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Baby Thrown From Van As Dad Leads Cops On High-Speed Chase

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

Zachary Chervenka led police on a high-speed chase in Bryan, Ohio last December and his baby boy flew out of the van and onto the highway. The baby's mother found the baby in his car seat with the help of police. Chervenka spoke to police the next day and explained why he took off. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the footage in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Go to https://thrivemarket.com/CrimeFix to receive 30% off your first order AND a FREE gift when you join Thrive Market today!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Producer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. I've been scared for like getting locked up and I'm the one that provides for him. That's Zachary Chervenka. Police say he led them on a high speed chase and his baby was actually thrown from his van. That baby's mother later rescued him from the highway. I have the case out of Ohio and what happened to Chervenka? Welcome to Crime Fix, I'm anjanette levy a father's instinct should be to put his children first and to protect them at all cost but 32 year old zachary trevanka did the opposite and now he's behind bars after a reckless decision to flee from police. Trevanka was wanted on active warrants

out of DeKalb County, Indiana, north of Fort Wayne, and that's about 40 minutes west of Bryan, Ohio, which is important in this story. One of those warrants was for obstruction of justice, identity deception, and theft, another involving resisting law enforcement and criminal recklessness. It's December 1st, 2024, when Brian police officers in Ohio spot Trevanka at a local Walmart with his family. Zach, how's it going? He's running. No. No! Damn, what direction do you go? I see him. Trevenka flees from officers, taking his two children along with him for the ride on a high-speed pursuit. During the chase, he reaches speeds of over 100 miles per hour, blowing through eight major intersections and failing to stop at nine stop signs. Yes,

nine. The pursuit continues for about 15 minutes until Bryan police make the decision to call it off for the safety of the children and because of the hazardous weather conditions. Back at Walmart, officers zero in on Zachary's wife, hoping she holds the key to tracking him down. Hello. I was told that you guys would be here soon, and I was hoping you had something about my kids. No, we, due to the kids being in the vehicle, we stopped the pursuit. So I don't know where he's at, where he's going.

He's looking at severe charges, multiple felony charges. Do you know where he may be going? How well do you know that? He's the father of my three kids. Were all three children in the vehicle? Two of them were. I thought I only seen two. So nobody has seen either of my kids? No, not since we stopped at the street.

He continued on towards Indiana. He called me when he was leaving and said that he had to put the car seat outside. Leaving when? Huh? Leaving when? When he left here. I kept trying to call him and call him and call him. I seen him get in the back door or the passenger door and climbed over or whatnot.

During the pursuit? No, when we first made contact. What are your children's information? Do you want to go inside? No, my dog is so heavy. Okay, well, we're going to help with that, but we need to get some information from you, okay? Did you know that high blood pressure is the number one risk factor for mortality? One in two adults have it, and many don't even realize they're at risk. It's a silent killer lurking unnoticed until it's too late. But here's the good news. You don't have to rely on big pharma to manage it.

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to save 15% right now. The officers collect information from the wife and bring her over to a squad car to stay warm and wait for next steps. While waiting, she gets an alarming call from Zachary and shares the news with the female officer. Just on the side of the road. I think so, by the stop sign. By the side, did you say what road? The one, the light. You go straight, heading like you're going to Defiance. Okay. And then there's a road that has a curve

where you can go towards like Hicksville. Okay. He said he left him right there by that stop sign where the curve is. Okay, if you take me there, can you take me there? Do you know, do you think he's telling the truth that he just left the kid out in the snow? I do. I think so. Okay, hang on. And this is the youngest one, correct? Yes. Is it the girl? The boy. Okay. Okay, I know. We'll get there. If he's truthful about him.

Do you want to sit in the car? Hello? I'll get the door open. She just came back to me and said that he called her and said that he dropped off the youngest, the baby boy, in a car seat heading towards the clients just on the side of the road. The police said he can a car seat, heading towards the pines just on the side of the road. The police said he can't love her, and she didn't give me a voice.

Yeah, so I don't know if she says she could take me to that area. I don't know. Should I call Doc, ask him if I can go back there? Yeah. I know. I know. Damn. I'm with the cops.

Did they see the cop? Cop car? Who are you on the phone with? My ride. Okay. Because my friend sent somebody. Okay. On the grocery side of Walmart, but moreover, towards McDonald's, where the lit-up car is.

Hang on. Hey, Doc? Yep. Can you hear me? Okay, here, ma'am, sit in the car for me. Just sit. The female that was with him just said that he called her and said that he left the baby in the car seat on the side of the road somewhere from here to the client's. She said she knows one of the roads that she can take me to.

Okay. All right. Okay, bye. All right, ma'am, if you... Who's your ride? Is this it? I think that might be it. Okay. Who is this to you? I don't even know who this person is. It's just somebody that my friend trusted to come and get me. Okay, well, you're not going to go with him right now. You're going to go with me. Okay, that's fine. Do you believe that he left? What did he tell you exactly? That he just left the baby on the side of the road? Yeah. Okay, and do you know, if you take me there, do you know where you're going? Yeah.

Okay, all right. Do you have anything on you? Sharp, nothing? Okay. I just got to ask you in my seat. If you want to push your bags over, you'll be in the back seat. Okay. And you said going out of town like the way we went for the pursuit? I didn't know where you went for the pursuit. We turned, but I went down. Yeah.

Okay. All right. Just hop in. Okay. I don't know if he was turning on me or not. Who? My ride. Okay.

Well, we'll worry about that later. I don't even care. Yep. Just, we'll worry about that later. I don't even care. Yep, just get in. We'll take you back to the PD after. Thank you. I'm going to be going southbound on 127, just past Stairhouse 6. I'll keep you updated on my 39 and if I find anything.

You're clear. Am I taking this curve? Yes. The curve is right here and there's a stop sign. Where that car just pulled up. Did you see that? Yep. Is that where he said he left the child?

I think so. Right in this area. He said, bye. Oh my God, that's the car seat right there. Oh God, please let me out. Please let me out. My baby, my baby, my baby. Oh, please let me out. Please let me out.

Please. Ma'am, please let me out. Please let me out. Please. Ma'am, please let me out. 3620. Oh my god, Riff. Baby boy. Baby boy. Boobie on the curb on 127 at the stop sign with that child. Oh, mama's here! Okay, keep him on the ground, keep him on the ground. I'm just gonna get him out. He's so cold. I know, get him out. Baby, it's okay. Mama's here. Mama's here. It's gonna be 127 and 15, curb.

Oh, baby. I do believe he is awake. He's crying. Oh, maybe I'll stand by for you. Oh baby. Oh God. Oh God. I'm so sorry baby. Don't worry about your phone. Okay. Is she breathing? Is she okay? Yes. Oh, mommy's got you. I know. Here. I know, baby. I know, baby. Sit in the car. Come. Is she breathing?

Is she OK? Yes, yes. Breathing? Mommy's got you. Mommy's got you. Mommy's got you. Mommy's got you. Mommy's got you.

Mommy's got you. Mommy's got you. Mommy's got you. Oh, my god, baby. Oh, you're OK. Yeah. Oh, sweetie. Oh. Yeah. Oh sweetie I know you're cold mommy's got you now

Okay, she's right here she's in here All right, so are you okay to walk to... What are you guys going on? Can you help him with light? We had a pursuit with the father of this child for a family warrant. He went this way. He said he was going to kick the kid out of the car in the pursuit.

We didn't see him. And then he called her about 15 minutes ago. Said that he left him here. I just rolled up. Just left the kid in the damn road? Yeah. He said he wanted to kick him out in the pursuit. I just rolled up. Left the kid in the damn road? Yeah. He said he wanted to kick him out in the pursuit. I don't know how long the kids have been out here. 401 Bayward?

He had two kids in the pursuit. Do you have any idea where he went? Not at all. We chased him all the way. He went west on 6th and Edgerton. This is from the pursuit. The suspect left a baby on the side of the road. Officers reviewed the dash cam footage and they learn that's exactly what Zachary did. Amid the chaos of the pursuit, Trevenka allowed his nine-month-old to be ejected from his vehicle.

The newborn was in below freezing temperatures for about an hour before he was saved by his mother. There was no information shared about the five-year-old girl also in the car. Later that night, Edgerton police arrest Zachary Trevenka and bring him down to the station for questioning. All right. We'll follow this officer in. And you can just have a seat. I'll be right with you in one second, okay? Right off the bat, Zachary admits he wasn't thinking straight.

Last night, I just... It was a dumb decision. I should have just... Honestly, I should have just been honest with you guys about what was going on a long time ago. I wouldn't be in the situation that I am now. I wouldn't have put my kids through that. You'd be in a lot better position than now. I've been scared for getting locked up.

I'm the one that provides for them so they'd be without my parents abby's parents don't really do much for they get money from us like hundreds of dollars a month so she would have to figure that out and then my kids obviously wouldn't get to see me but really like on top of all that and then there's been like just all this stuff with greg like it's just got way too deep and i was just scared last night like i knew if i get pulled over like just the nudie was in that he would be worried that i'm stitching and so because he's been worried about that he's helped me like get away but he's also like not he's caused a lot of this so you were aware you had a warrant obviously okay what did you come to brian for i'm just come to walmart so that

get some stuff for just normal groceries, okay. So when I arrived, I observed you on the passenger side. Climbed in, hopped right into the driver's seat it seemed. What was your intention with that? Just to... I was scared. I knew like if I got pulled over like right then and there that Abby and the kids I didn't feel like safe I didn't feel like they would be safe and I know it sounds crazy because I took them and put them in danger anyway but yeah but I was just I just scared that if I went to jail, you would even think I was sanctioned.

And I don't know what to do. I haven't been thinking for a while. Yeah. So when I made contact with you, well, when I approached the vehicle, I obviously observed you in the driver's seat, right? You were shaking, you were looking, almost as if you were going to get out. What were you thinking then?

I knew I should get out. I knew that that was the choice that I should make. I was just scared. The officer tries to understand what changed his mind, because initially, it seemed as if Zachary Trevenka was going to get out of the car. Yeah, I was going to get out, but, like, in that moment, I wanted to get out and just come clean about everything and do what I should have done a long time ago, but I just didn't because I was just scared. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. So when I walked around and then I said your name, were you aware of the children were in the vehicle? I... Or were you not even thinking about that? I wasn't even really thinking about it. I knew that they were in it once I had started going in the car. Yeah, so are you aware of what took place with Ripley?

Yeah, yeah. Do you recall what took place with Ripley? Yeah. What do you recall what took place with Ripley? Yeah. What do you recall? He just went to stop and he wasn't buckled in and he fell out of the vehicle. Flew out. Yeah, I didn't see it. We were going so fast, I didn't see it.

And the officer following didn't see it. And the officer following didn't see it. It was after the fact when I reviewed footage. We seen that. Luckily, we were able to find him in time. So he is alive. I don't know if... Yeah. I was there. So he is alive, I don't know if... Yeah. I remember calling Abby and asking her,

like, hey, do you have her? And we're like, who should have gotten her? And she said, no. I was like, totally aware of what happened to her. Mm-hmm. So obviously that in itself is something that should have never happened. Yeah, never, ever. When Trevanka sped off, that van door was not closed, leaving the nine-month-old baby vulnerable.

When the vehicle rounded the split in the highway, the car seat containing the baby boy flew out, bouncing several times, eventually landing in its final resting spot alongside the highly traveled highway. Did you intentionally unbuckle? I was pushing the weapon in there and she just was not unbuckling. Yeah, I would never intentionally do anything to hurt my kids. And she can confirm that I love them. Anybody in my family can tell you. Even people that don't agree with what I've done. I love my kids.

So, no. No. Intentional? No. Okay. Because you said that you called during the pursuit, said you were going to slow down and get the kid out.

I'm assuming that took place after the child was already out of the vehicle. The day that I said that? Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. So you have intentions of doing that? No, I never threw him out of the accordion or anything like that. Okay. That helps a lot, you intentionally did that to try to distract us in some way.

I know I said that because I was just ashamed of what happened. I didn't want to like tell her. Yeah, no father wanted to put their child in any type of damage, not in danger or anything like that. So, why did you continue after that took place? I mean, what was your mindset during that? Were you thinking of anything? When did you notice the vehicle? Shortly after that. And after the turn, like after the why or when you made that turn?

So as I remember correctly, it's like one head towards the prize, right? And then the road kind of curves off. Yes. It around there right yeah and then right after that right after that it would have been like very very soon after that okay at one point in the interrogation trevanka makes another admission soliciting his friend for an escape where were you heading did you have any set place to go? I didn't call him because I was, I don't know why. I just had no idea what to do in this situation because he's helped like in some way. It was like, not even him, it's like it's been in my life, in my kids' lives, and I am responsible for that as well.

But I just got so, when you guys were chasing me and I got pulled over i knew he had he was listening to the scanner and i called him and he was like yeah you need to get right now he's like you need to get the so i headed towards there and then he he was on six and tried, like, stopping a police car, like, in his Durango, his black Durango. And it didn't work, so I went back down. Is that the vehicle that almost struck us? Yes. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. But he was, uh... And he admitted to you that he said that? He was trying to stop us? Yeah, I was on the phone with him, yeah. He said he hit one of the vehicles. Okay. So he said he hit the, like the first one kind of swerved and then he said he hit the second one and it went like off the road or something and came back on the road.

Trevenka then talked about how he dropped off his older child. Took place after that. I took my daughter to Chris because I was already on the phone with him. And he said, you dropped that kid off with me. And then so I dropped her off. Well, he wasn't. I don't know if he was in there. I dropped off off. I don't know if he was in there. I dropped off his wife.

And I told her, like, hey, this is what's going on. I didn't even tell her what's going on. I told her something happened. I'm dropping her off here. Just keep her safe and someone will pick her up. And then I took the van and went and took it to where I dropped it at. Okay, where did you leave, go after that? After I took the van and dropped it off?

I stayed in it for a while and then I went to, stayed in it for like maybe 30 minutes, charged my phone up, and then I went to... Trevenka was then asked again about why he just didn't stop the night before. Why didn't you stop at any point? Especially on six. There was a couple times where I was like, oh, thank God he's stopping. And then he kept going. Or he'd slow down for a turn.

The turns, that makes sense. You think you can slow down for a turn like the turns that makes sense you think you can slow down enough to get a turn in but then on straightaways you slow down why didn't you just come to a stop at any point and just put all this to a stop there's a lot a lot of times where, like at first, I'm not gonna lie, like at first I was scared. I didn't want to go to prison. I wouldn't say scared, I just didn't want to go. Like when I got kicked out of the halfway house,

I just didn't want to go to prison because like my life had been going so well. And, my family was happy with me, like my daughter and my son and my girl. And things were just headed in, like, a good direction. But then, like, that went away, like, fast. And it came to a point where, like, I did want to, like, just be done with it.

And being on the run isn't fun. And especially not, like, with everything that was going on. But I was just, like, terrified. I knew that if I did what he said, then he wouldn't do anything to my daughter. I mean, he's not crazy. Like, if I did what he said, everything would be fine. Yep. But as long as I got away, but then

how like here I am doing anyway, I mean, worried today. I mean, to be honest, at the end of the day, I'm sure you knew at some point. Yeah, I knew I said was gonna come to this outcome. Yeah. I just didn't want like i wanted i was not thinking right i was just hoping that i could like do something to fix the situation like get some money and put the having the kids somewhere else or in a better position and away from here. Yeah. Zachary Trevenka was charged with multiple counts, including felonious assault, two counts of endangering children, two counts of failure to comply

with an order of a police officer, and trespassing. He accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm your agent, Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.