Iowa: Cheyanne Harris, Zachary Koehn charged in murder of 4-month-old son

An Iowa couple was charged with first degree murder after their 4-month-old son, who was found dead and infested with maggots inside their apartment.

Police were called to the Riceville apartment of Cheyanne Harris, 20, and Zachary Koehn, 28, on August 30 after Koehn said his son Sterling was unresponsive, a few hours after he said Harris fed the infant.

Sterling Daniel Koehn, was found dead sitting in a power swing on Aug. 30 after Koehn called 911 requesting an ambulance to the couple’s Alta Vista apartment.

To deputies Koehn reportedly told them that his girlfriend, Harris, had fed Sterling that morning “and he was fine.” Koehn said Harris checked on the baby a couple of hours later, and he had died.

The infant weighed just under seven pounds and was 14 inches long, well below the fifth percentile for the child’s age, according to an autopsy conducted by the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office.

Documents detailed how examiners also discovered maggots in various stages of development on the child’s skin and clothing, indicating the 4-month-old had not had a diaper change or bath in over a week and hadn’t even been removed from the power swing in that time.

Harris and Koehn were charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death

“The facts of this case go far beyond neglect and show circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life,” Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Deputy Reed Palo wrote in the criminal complaints.

Alta Vista is about 125 miles northeast of Des Moines.

Cheyanne Renae Harris and Zachary Paul Koehn