Mother Leaves Her Baby to Rot In His Swing

Try to imagine that you’re a newborn first entering the world. You are crying out for your parents. You’re craving love and comfort. You’re relying on others to feed you and keep you clean and safe. What if, instead, you’re left in a dark corner and not checked up on for days? All the while, the rest of your family is completely cared for.

What kind of parents do you think would be capable of doing this? Unfortunately, in today’s story, this barely scratches the surface of the horrors that this baby faced.

Zach Keane was a rebellious teenager and, at 16 years of age, was kicked out of his family home for smoking and drinking. By 17 years of age, he began using uppers to stay awake after finding employment as a long-haul truck driver. Previously married to a woman named Sherry, the couple would give birth to a son who subsequently would go to live with Zach’s parents. Zach didn’t have any contact with his son. And although there isn’t any clear information as to why, one would make the assumption that it was due to the fact that he was using illicit substances and was away for long periods of time due to his employment as a long-haul trucker.

(Now, if you’re familiar with this case, you’ve probably heard many different pronunciations of his last name. It seems like no news sources can get it correct. We’ve heard Keen, Kain, Con, Cohen. So, for the rest of the episode, we’re going to use Keen as it’s most commonly reported in the news. Also, thank you to Danielle, who’s from the area, for letting us know that in Iowa, that name is commonly pronounced Keen.)

Zach and Sherry’s marriage ultimately ended in divorce. In 2014, the now 25-year-old Zach met 17-year-old Cheyenne Harris. Within a year, the couple gave birth to a daughter that they named Nala whilst living together in the state of Louisiana. By all accounts, Nala was well cared for and loved by both parents. As Zach had been raised in a Mennonite community, the couple observed traditional gender roles, with the father being the breadwinner and the mother taking care of the home and family.

This arrangement seemed to be going pretty well until Cheyenne began to miss her family. So, the family uprooted to Riceville, Iowa, for a short time before relocating to the small town of Alta Vista, where Zach found employment hauling chickens overnight. Zach struggled with sobriety and again started using uppers to stay awake, which he got from his co-workers. However, this time, Zach introduced to his girlfriend, Cheyenne, the very substance that he was addicted to—and that substance is meth, which is a banned word on YouTube, so this is the only time I’m going to say that word during this video.

After Zach succeeded in getting Cheyenne hooked, the two spiraled into using it almost daily. During the summer of 2016, Cheyenne was pregnant with the couple’s second child. Rather than get sober for the sake of her unborn baby, Cheyenne continued to use, and Zach continued to supply her with drugs because, according to him, she was too difficult to deal with when she was not using them.

On the night of May 1st, 2017, Zach and a now 9-month pregnant Cheyenne attended a party at their friend Rick’s house in Mount Pleasant, about an hour south of the couple’s apartment in Alta Vista. Throughout the day, Cheyenne hadn’t been feeling well, and she thought she was suffering from constipation. After taking laxatives and making several trips to the bathroom without anything coming to fruition, Cheyenne soon realized that she wasn’t constipated. She was actually in labor.

On her final trip to the bathroom, Cheyenne’s baby began to crown, and she called Zach, who suggested that she hop into the bathtub and perform a makeshift water birth, which she did. Emergency services were contacted, and mother and baby—whom she named Sterling—were kept in the hospital for observation.

Cheyenne had lost a lot of blood due to the home birth, and baby Sterling had water and human waste in his lungs. Additionally, it was found during a routine examination that Sterling was born with drugs in his system. Now, you would think that the hospital workers, who are mandated reporters, would contact CPS with this information, right? Well, you’d be wrong. Nothing was done about this information, and mother and son were both discharged from the hospital about a week later.

Additionally, Zach had questions about his son’s paternity after several family members pointed out that Sterling looked nothing like him. Zach had a much darker complexion, which is really apparent in pictures of Nala. Although Zach stated that he’d claim Sterling as his own either way, there were questions regarding an affair. More on that later.

With Zach away for a good part of the day hauling chickens, Cheyenne struck up a friendship with her neighbor, Jennifer Shrivever, who offered to babysit Nala and Sterling after noticing that the young mother seemed overwhelmed. By all accounts, Cheyenne seemed like a good mother. She just seemed tired. When dropping her kids off with Jennifer, Cheyenne would provide her with a notebook filled with instructions on how to best take care of them. Nala, now 21 months old, appeared to be well-fed and well taken care of. Sterling seemed a bit underweight, which Cheyenne would go on to explain was due to an allergy to the formula that she was feeding him.

During this time, Cheyenne and Zach made no attempt to get clean. They had the support of a loving neighbor to help with the kids and the help and support of Cheyenne’s family, who they relocated to be closer to. Instead, the couple would continue to use daily, with Cheyenne often accompanying Zach on his long-haul truck runs. On two separate occasions, their neighbor Jennifer watched the kids for 17 hours.

Everything came to a head on the morning of August 30th, 2017. Zach had gone to work at 5:00 p.m. the previous evening and returned home at around 3:34 a.m. He claimed that he fed Nala but didn’t feed Sterling because Cheyenne claimed that he was sleeping. According to them, Sterling often seemed to be sleeping. The father went to bed, only to be woken up at around 11:00 a.m. by a hysterical Cheyenne. Baby Sterling wasn’t asleep. He was dead.

Zach made the following call to 911 operators, suggesting that the boy died of sudden infant death syndrome:

Zach: “County 911. Need an ambulance.” Operator: “Okay. What’s going on?” Zach: “Uh, around 9, my girlfriend went to, uh, see our son, and then about 11 or 11:30 check on him, and he was gone. Gone meaning she died. She was in check. I had heard her cry or whatever and she passed away. I don’t know if it was sudden infant death syndrome or what.”

Tony Friedrich, a 30-year veteran first responder, showed up on the scene and encountered the two parents who didn’t seem to show any sign of emotion or distress that their son was reportedly dead. After insisting that Zach and Cheyenne show her where the baby was, she was led to a hot and stuffy room that was dark due to the window being blocked out with a blanket.

The room reeked of human waste, and there wasn’t any sign that a baby should be living inside of it. There was no crib, no pack-and-play, no toys—only two old mattresses leaning up against a wall. After demanding that the couple turn on a light and asking yet again where the baby was, she was directed to a swing that was turned to face a corner.

What she found in that swing still haunts her to this day.

Baby Sterling was dead and had been dead for some time. His eyes were fixed and dilated. His hands were cold and stiff and clenched into fists, and blood was dripping from his mouth. He was transferred while still in his swing to the medical examiner, where the following was found:

At almost 4 months old, baby Sterling weighed less than 7 lbs, which is the size of a newborn. According to the website The Bump, the average weight for a 4-month-old baby is 14.2 lbs for girls and 15.4 lbs for boys. Sterling died from dehydration, malnutrition, and an infection. He was left in the swing and made to sit in a diaper filled with his own waste until it started to decay. His diaper rash was so severe that it led to the development of open wounds on his skin. In fact, the skin on his backside had completely come off. As such, E. coli bacteria from the waste in his diaper entered his bloodstream.

But what was the most disturbing detail of them all? Sterling had maggots in various stages of growth crawling on his skin, in his decaying diaper, on his clothing, and in his swing. It is estimated that he was left that way for nine or more days based on an entomologist’s examination of the maggots. The little baby would have had these maggots crawling all over him while he was still alive. Additionally, it is estimated that Sterling had been deceased for approximately 12 to 24 hours before he was discovered.

Now, a one-day-old unchanged diaper is very noticeable, and I would assume all parents listening with us today would agree. Any dirty diaper is noticeable, for that matter. So, it’s reasonable to surmise that Zach and Cheyenne must have smelt the heavy odor from the baby and chose to ignore it. Also, Sterling would have frequently cried from hunger and thirst, and they chose to ignore that as well.

Cheyenne maintained that she fed Sterling at least three times a day and constantly changed his diaper, but also noted that she should have checked on Sterling more. In reality, she would just prop a bottle up in his filthy swing and leave him there.

Oddly enough, there were people in Zach and Cheyenne’s life that had no idea that the couple even had a son. Zach often talked about his daughter Nala, but others alleged that he never mentioned that he had a son at all. According to friend and co-worker Jordan Clark, he never saw a baby. Clark was a frequent visitor to the home and often used drugs with the couple. However, he did see Nala frequently. Jordan said he first learned of Sterling’s existence when Zach called into work the morning the baby was discovered deceased.

By all accounts, the couple cared for their little daughter but neglected their son. In fact, all family members, including their dog, Leo, were in great health. All except for baby Sterling.

It should also be noted that after the death of Sterling, Cheyenne and Jordan Clark began an affair that started as flirtatious text messages and then led to hookups while she was still living with Zach. Zach eventually found out about the affair but still remained in a relationship with Cheyenne. And yes, I did say the affair started taking place after the death of Sterling.

Due to the overwhelming evidence of neglect, Sterling’s cause of death was indeed ruled a homicide. But the parents were not immediately arrested and charged. They remained free for nearly 2 months. We searched extensively for reasons as to why it took so long to make an arrest, and there was no information to be found. Either way, one would think that the suspected killing, or in the very least, gross negligence surrounding Sterling would be enough to disgust someone, but this apparently wasn’t an issue for Jordan Clark.

On October 25th, 2017, Zach and Cheyenne were arrested and charged with first-degree homicide.

While in court, the defense argued that Cheyenne suffered from postpartum depression and self-medicated with illicit substances, but that Sterling’s death was not planned and that she had no intention of harming him. However, what cannot be explained is the fact that her daughter Nala was taken care of and in good health, but Sterling was left to die. In fact, when discussing Sterling, it’s been noted that Cheyenne seemed to be detached, but would light up when discussing Nala or the family dog.

During Zach’s trial, he placed all of the blame on Cheyenne. According to him, he never changed the baby’s diaper because he has a weak stomach, and Cheyenne was aware of this. Hence, it was her duty by his account. He never fed or interacted with the baby due to his long shifts as a truck driver. He also claimed he never held his baby during the last weeks before his death because:

“Usually, he was sleeping and other times I was not to disturb him as he was a colicky baby and they are just super hard to get to sleep. I could go in and look at him, but he was usually covered in blankets. You could see his little head peeking out.”

By being covered in blankets, maybe what really had occurred was that Cheyenne had thrown a blanket over the swing for other reasons—perhaps to muffle his cries, suppress the smell, or just so she wouldn’t have to look at him. This, of course, is just conjecture, but due to the state that Sterling was found in, one could be inclined to wonder.

Additionally, the behaviors of both parents the morning that Sterling was discovered were a cause for concern. According to Cheyenne, she had gone to check on Sterling at 9:00 a.m. but couldn’t remember if it was 9:00 a.m. that day or the previous day. Neither parent picked the baby up in an attempt to help him. They just left him in a filthy swing, nor did either parent call 911 immediately. Instead, they took out their trash and brought their dog Leo to stay with a neighbor, as they technically weren’t allowed to have dogs in their apartment. In fact, the neighbor actually had to urge Zach to call 911.

It took the jury just 4 hours to find Cheyenne guilty of first-degree homicide and the endangerment of a minor. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It took just 1 hour to find Zach guilty of all of the same charges. He too is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. Both have filed appeals, all of which have been denied.

Cheyenne is currently being housed at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women located in Mitchellville, Iowa. She was recently featured in a BBC 3 documentary series called Locked Up with Lifers hosted by Stacey Dooley. Although the series was initially well-received, the episode featuring Cheyenne was met with criticism. During the filming, Cheyenne had been placed in segregation for getting into fights with other inmates and denied responsibility for her son’s death. The documentary as a whole painted Cheyenne in a sympathetic light as a mother struggling with addiction who was being bullied inside of the prison, without revealing any of the details related to the case. After the episode aired, many viewers, including myself, actually Googled Cheyenne’s case and were horrified at what we found out. Yes, this was my first introduction to the case.

Zach is currently being held at the Iowa Department of Corrections Chickasaw County unit and, unlike Cheyenne, has managed to not create further scandal for himself.

A lot of news coverage I’ve seen surrounding this case really focuses on the perpetrators. But that’s likely because Sterling didn’t have any life to speak of. But that in itself needs to be spoken about. All baby Sterling knew in his life was true agony. And even that sentence feels like an understatement. One can only imagine the suffering poor Sterling experienced during the last moments of his life, sitting in a dark room in a swing facing the wall, covered in a blanket with maggots crawling all over his tiny body, rotting to death in his own filth.

That is a hard thing to try to think about, but it’s important to do so in order to realize the extent his parents went to in order to slowly kill their baby. This was not a parent killing their son in a fit of rage. This was a deliberate attempt to ensure that Sterling’s 4-month existence on this earth was filled with constant torment.

So, in the case of Zach and Cheyenne, they are exactly where they belong.