Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Parents Left Daughter To Die in Closet With Space Heater: Police

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

Sintia Perez and Jayce Hirschy are accused of leaving their 2-year-old daughter, Zaelynn Hirschy, in a crib in with a space heater overnight for more than 12 hours. Police in Berne, Indiana said the room temperature reached 109 degrees. Perez and Hirschy face charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in death and other neglect charges related to two of their other children. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Sarena Townsend https://x.com/TownsendSarenaCRIME 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/lawandcrimenetworkSee 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. A mother and father accused of causing their toddler daughter's death in a horrific way. I have the allegations in the death of little Zaylin Hershey and the deplorable conditions the prosecutor says she and her siblings were enduring. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. This case is so upsetting because it was so easily preventable. Police

and prosecutors in Indiana say two-year-old Zaylin Hershey died after her parents left her in a room where the temperature reached 109 degrees. The couple, 21-year-old Cynthia Perez and 23-year-old Jace Hershey, faced three felony counts of neglect, including neglect of a dependent resulting in death and neglect of a dependent. The day before Thanksgiving, the Byrne Police Department in Indiana received a 911 call from Jace Hershey requesting help. Medics went to the Swiss Meadows apartment complex and found an awful, awful scene. Police say once they walked inside the main bedroom, they felt an immediate heat difference.

According to court documents, what officers found was shocking. The document reads, In the main bedroom, trash was noted on the floor in plain view, and the room was disarrayed. A trash bag on the east wall with trash in it, a soiled diaper on the floor, an empty pizza box, and another trash bag on the west side of the wall filled with trash. I observed the decedent in the crib lying on a very soiled mattress. Trash was scattered on the floor, empty half-gallon cartons of almond breeze, and what appeared to be torn up white paper plates on the floor and underneath the crib. Inside the crib was a blanket and a towel. On the closet's west wall was a blanket stacked up against the wall. Near

the east wall on the crib's south side, what appeared to be feces was observed on the floor. There was also trash in the closet near the space heater. Police also observed the two-year-old in a soiled diaper with a red-colored stain underneath the left upper head to the left side of her lower abdomen. Zaylin's head was darkly discolored. Investigators on the scene grew concerned about the safety for the other tenants in the apartment complex. The Burn Fire Department took temperature readings with an infrared thermal device. The temperatures were documented as evidence. This is one of those cases that makes me realize how important it is to know

who's living right next door to you. That's what's great about truthfinder.com. You can log on and search people. Truthfinder is one of the world's largest public record search services. Just put in a person's name and you'll get a lot of information like current and past addresses, possible relatives, social media accounts, phone numbers and addresses. It will even show you the sex offenders who live near you. If you want to try it, you can get 50 percent off. Log on to www.truthfinder.com slash LC Crime Fix and start accessing information about almost anyone. The document says at about 3.57 p.m., an infrared thermometer from the EMS personnel was used to measure the temperature in the room

where the decedent was found in the crib. The first temperature obtained was the heat of the ceiling, which was read at 108.3 degrees. The second reading taken of the decedent was read at 108.8 degrees. The third temperature was taken of the crib railing, 101.8 degrees. The fourth reading was taken of the decedent's chest, 109.4 degrees. The fifth temperature was taken of the decedent's forehead, 108.8 degrees.

On the floor next to the crib was 96.8 degrees. While at the scene, Cynthia requested to next to the crib was 96.8 degrees. While at the scene, Cynthia requested to go to the hospital. Before she could leave, police spoke to her. She stated the decedent was placed in the crib in the closet at approximately 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 26, 2024. A space heater in the closet was turned on. The closet door was closed nearly all the way. The closet is approximately six feet by eight feet. Perez stated she awoke the following day, Wednesday, November 27th, 2024, at approximately 1230 p.m. Both Perez and Hershey were home on November 27th, 2024. Neither parent checked on the well-being of the decedent until after 3 p.m. The autopsy revealed the cause of death as hyperthermia, with little Zalyn's body temperature measuring 109.4 degrees.

Also in the apartment, which was filthy, the couple's two remaining children both were found with lice. The conditions in the apartment were so bad, and with little Zalyn dying, the children were placed in the custody of the Department of Child Services. The parents are being held at the Adams County Jail awaiting trial. Serena Townsend is a former prosecutor. She's currently a defense attorney. So, Serena, tell me if you would, just your first thoughts on this case. I just can't even imagine a two-year-old dying like this with a space heater in a closet. It's honestly one of the most horrific stories that I have heard. We hear about parents doing

things, you know, accidentally, intentionally to their children. You would think, I understand the charge has to do with neglect, but this is the most extreme type of neglect. Everybody knows how dangerous those space heaters are. And that space was so small. Anybody who was thinking about the well-being of their child should have known that this was an extremely dangerous situation. The charge that these parents are facing, it's neglecting a dependent resulting in death or neglect of a dependent resulting in death. It carries, I think, a prison term of 40 years if convicted. What I don't understand is why you've got the one child, who I believe is the middle child of the three,

locked in this closet or closed in the closet space with the space heater in the crib. The other children are not, but they go in there and the place is just a disaster it's filthy i mean the other kids according to police had lice there are you know pizza boxes all over the place it's just the place is trashed and the parents are sleeping till all hours of the day without checking on the child i i just it's's so horrific to me how this child may have died. You know, they don't have an official, well, they said, no, she died of hyperthermia. So she died

of being overheated. I just can't even imagine how that little girl, what she went through in passing away. And she's two years old and she can't do anything to help herself. Yes. It's really awful because you don't know and we don't know just how terrible those two years were for her and how terrible the years have been for her siblings. Obviously, this is not a one and done thing. The crime scene, if you will, which is the home itself, obviously had accumulated terrible neglect throughout the years. I mean, you don't just end up with feces all over the apartment, dirty diapers, roaches, lice in the children's hair, a parent's sleeping until 1230 in the afternoon and then not even checking on their child until

three in the afternoon when they put her to bed at seven the night before. I mean, even just to feed and change her, even if you didn't know that she was sleeping in this extremely hot environment, just how about regular intervals of checking in on your child to feed, change, burp, whatever else this child needed to be stimulated and healthy. None of that was going on. Clearly, none of that went on with the other kids either. And these children were living in a torture, torture home, basically. And it sounds much like that, that it is. I mean, I, I don't understand what was going on with these parents that they were sleeping so long. I mean, you know, I don't know exactly, you know, how long they were sleeping or what they told police. Who knows what the truth is? You know, it could have

been 100 percent true. It could not. But obviously they're saying they did not check on this child. But what is going on that you guys are sleeping so long, not checking on your children? I mean, they're obviously charged with neglecting all three children um and then zaylin obviously passed away what on earth is going on and what is going on in that apartment building that maybe nobody's noticing you know you don't know what goes on behind closed doors but what is going on that you're sleeping so long or not doing anything to tend to your children right i mean I mean, I have a feeling that the police will obviously get a search warrant to search the house to see what to try to piece those puzzle pieces together. I mean, you do have the mom apparently making statements to the police.

That's the only reason they know the timeline that we're talking about right now. So she's talking. I don't know if the husband is also talking, but the police have a job to do here. They have to piece together the puzzle of the last two years of this child's life. And they're going to do that by searching the apartment and trying to find additional evidence. So were there drugs there? You know, were they intoxicated? They're going to be able to hopefully even tell based on the parents' appearance and whether they're slurring their words or how they looked, how they dressed, how they smelled, what kind of paraphernalia is in the home. Are there drugs? Is there alcohol? They should be

doing a full up and down sweep of this house to try to figure out what kind of conditions these children were living in. And frankly, they have to in order to meet their burden of beyond a reasonable doubt eventually when this case goes to trial or, you know, gets prosecuted. So who knows indeed, but that is the job of the police at this point to figure it out. Or on the other hand, it's possible that the parents are lying about that timeline, that they were fully awake, that they knew what was going on and they're trying to cover it up. I don't think it's any better. I don't think that they win either way. They have tortured their children.

Their children are living in hell, dying in hell, it seems. And I think the police are going to have more than enough evidence to be able to help the prosecution prove this case. You know, it's really sad because, I mean, you can't really tell much from a photo, but I did see some photos online that showed them with the children. At least I saw one where they looked happy and like they actually loved the children. I mean, it's one photograph, but still, I mean, you're living in squalor. And for whatever reason, this two-year-old is in a crib in a closet with a space heater. I mean, I just, I don't get that. I don't, I don't get, even if it's a little chilly out, I mean, having that space heater, those things can get so hot so quickly, even the smaller type ones.

And then being in a confined space. I mean, it literally turns into a little bit of an oven. You know, that's the only thing I can think of. I mean, it's just so horrendous. This little girl essentially baked to death. Exactly. I think they said her temperature was 108 degrees, which is insane. I mean, they tell you as a mom, you know, they tell you if your child is running a fever of 102, 103, you're, you really have to do something about it. Especially a child that age, she's a toddler 108. I've never heard of such a thing in my life. That is baking. That is an oven. And again, it just goes back to the puzzle pieces of this case, right? It's one thing if everything else was okay.

The pictures on social media looked great. You know, the neighbors said they were wonderful parents. The other children were well-bathed and didn't have lice. The condition of the home was clean and tidy. And then you just had this space heater incident. But you don't. You have everything that shows signs of neglect from top to bottom, all three children. And that is going to be what the prosecution is going to focus on here. It's not just, oh, we left the space heater on. Oops. You know, this was a one time horrible thing that that, you know, everybody makes mistakes. That is not what happens here. We hear about cases where parents leave their children in a car, which is also just horrific. But a lot of times the parents say, you know, I was on a lack of sleep. It was a one-time thing. This isn't how I raise

my children normally. This is just a mistake. But the evidence that we're already seeing, even in the very beginning of this case, is showing that this is a pattern of neglect that these parents have in this house and that these children were unsafe for years, probably. Yeah, most certainly. You know, obviously, they're innocent until proven guilty. They will, you know, go to trial. Maybe they'll go to trial. Maybe they won't. But the evidence that we're reading about so far seems very clear about what happened here. And I've actually covered some cases before where parents have left their children in a room with a space heater overnight and a very similar thing happened. It's just absolutely horrific and awful. And this is apparently, from my understanding and talking with an attorney in Indiana, the most serious charge that the parents can face, that there is no homicide charge, I guess, that fits this in the state of Indiana.

So so this is it. This is what they can do. And it sounds, I mean, again, innocent until proven guilty always. But it does sound like the prosecution picked the right charge for this case. That is extreme neglect. At least it looks that way at this point. It's just so sad that poor little Zaylin died an awful, awful death. Thank you so much, Serena Townsend, for your time as always. Thank you so much for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me.

I'll see you back here next time.