Toddler Dies In Filthy Home, Parents Had Cocaine, Heroin: Sheriff

HOMER GLEN — The Will County State's Attorney's Office has asked a Will County judge to keep 49-year-old Edward Weiher in the Will County Jail following last week's death of his 2-year-old daughter. Weiher and the child's mother, Alexa Balen, 27, are both being charged as co-defendants in the death of the child inside their filthy $900,000 home in Homer Glen.

A search of the home found the house in complete disarray as the entire floor was covered in garbage, food, urine and feces, and spread throughout the countertops and tables was a clear white substance suspected to be heroin and cocaine, prosecutors outlined in court records.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office has charged the Homer Glen parents with endangering the life or health of a child, unlawful possession of a controlled substance - cocaine; unlawful possession of a controlled substance - heroin; and another count of endangering the life or health of a child. The criminal complaint accuses Balen and Weiher of providing unsafe living conditions for their child who died.

Balen is not currently in custody; she remains in an area hospital undergoing medical care, according to Will County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Dan Jungles. A warrant has been issued for her arrest and she will be taken to the jail for the booking process once her medical issues are addressed, police told Patch.

Weiher has been in the jail since the afternoon of Nov. 6.

A pretrial detention hearing for Weiher is set for Thursday in Will County Courtroom 405.

According to the Will County State's Attorney's Office petition to deny Weiher's pretrial release, Will County Sheriff's deputies were called to Weiher's home in the 12200 block of West Thorn Apple Drive in Homer Glen around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 6. A 2-year-old child was not breathing.

Deputies found Weiher giving the dead child, identified in court records as Trinity Balen-Weiher, chest compressions. She was on her back on an ottoman in the living room. There were no obvious signs of trauma to the child when Homer Fire responded to the house and brought the child out to the ambulance, court documents say.

Inside the home, sheriff's deputies saw the inside of the home was "unkempt with the floor soiled in multiple places and with diapers spread throughout the first floor. Food containers, rotten food and drinks also were observed throughout and there were clothes strewn throughout the residence."

The sheriff's deputies saw a can of spent NARCAN next to the ottoman where the unresponsive child was seen. According to the prosecutors, Weiher told sheriff's deputies he lives at the home in Homer Glen with his fiancé, Alexa Balen, and their child, Trinity. Alexa's 6-year-old sister also lives at the house. Balen previously lived in Florida, and she has a Florida driver's license, other court records indicate.

They moved into Weiher's house two or three months ago, he told the deputies, and had the gas turned on by NICOR on Nov. 2. According to court documents, Weiher told the sheriff's deputies that he, Alexa and the two children were out in the indoor pool until 3 a.m. on Nov. 6. He said Trinity was overtired and could not fall asleep. He estimated she fell asleep around 6 a.m. and slept all day.

On the night of Nov. 6, Weiher said Trinity was having trouble sleeping, so they cleared a spot in their living room for her to sleep, the court filings note. All of them slept in the living room, he indicated to sheriff's deputies. Weiher said he noticed that Trinity stopped breathing and he called 911 and tried CPR.

Firefighters checked the home for carbon monoxide but not register any readings, according to officials. NICOR was summoned to the home by the fire department and indicated that service was shut off on Sept. 30 due to nonpayment of the utility bills.

Service was restored on Nov. 2, the court documents show. The house was checked for gas leaks and a small amount of gas was found in the basement from one of the boilers, but it was not determined to be a lethal amount, prosecutors outlined to the judge.

There were several pieces of burnt foil on the ground that looked to be used for ingesting heroin, prosecutors revealed. There was also a first floor mattress with several grams of suspected heroin. Sheriff's deputies tested some of the substances and determined they were heroin and cocaine.

The heroin and cocaine that were found on tables, countertops and the mattress plus the burnt foil, and was also found "in areas that were reachable for Trinity," prosecutors noted in Weiher's petition. Several used cans of Narcan were also found in the area where Trinity was found by sheriff's deputies and Homer's firefighters.

Trinity's mother, Balen, was also interviewed by sheriff's deputies. She told the detectives that last Wednesday night "it appeared that Trinity had trouble breathing. Alexa stated that Trinity stopped breathing and believed it was from carbon monoxide poisoning. Detectives proceeded to challenge Alexa in her statement regarding the CO poisoning," prosecutors noted.

"Alexa advised detectives that Edward and her use heroin and on a regular basis. Alexa changed her story and advised that she suspected Trinity may have been overdosing on heroin," prosecutors informed the judge. "Alexa advised Edward tried to give Trinity one dose of Narcan. Alexa stated Edward did not know how to administer the Narcan and sprayed the bottle outside of Trinity's nostril. Alexa stated she wanted to call 911 at this time but Edward said that she should not."

Once they ran out of their can of Narcan, Weiher and Balen used their Uber app to purchase and have more doses of Narcan delivered to their Homer Glen house, the court records show. However, the additional Narcan "did not yield any results and Trinity stopped breathing. Alexa stated that she then called 911."

According to prosecutors, sheriff's deputies recovered 9 grams of heroin in various locations throughout the Homer Glen home "that were within reaching distance of Trinity." The cocaine that was recovered was too small to weigh. On the bedroom floor were 21 yellow rectangular pills known to be Alprazolam, or Xanax. Meanwhile, Trinity's 6-year-old sister was admitted to Christ Hospital, and had fentanyl and cocaine in her system, doctors informed DCFS officials.

As for the phone of Trinity's mother, Balen performed a web search at 7:46 p.m. on Nov. 6 for "how to stop an od" and "how to stop an od without naloxone" at 7:48 p.m. Sheriff's detectives found a receipt from Walgreens for the Uber driver's purchase of Narcan from 8:14 p.m.

"This would mean Trinity would have begun overdosing for approximately three hours and 41 minutes prior to Alexa calling 911," prosecutors pointed out. The autopsy on Trinity's body was done last Thursday, and the toxicology results are still pending.

"There were no signs of trauma on Trinity," the petition to deny pretrial release noted.