COLUMBUS, Ohio – A West Side couple is facing charges after the death of their 16-month-old daughter, who was left for hours in a room with a space heater in the summer heat.
UPDATE: Michael Wilder and Greta Sahatciu surrendered on July 23.
Michael Wilder, 29, and Greta Sahatciu, 23, have been charged in connection with the death earlier this month of their daughter, Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott said.
Scott says Maiya Wilder was unresponsive, not breathing and had a very high core temperature when her father, Michael, brought her to Doctors West Hospital on June 29. The child was flown to Nationwide Children’s Hospital where she was put on life-support but died on July 1, Scott said.
Detectives learned that the child had been left in a bedroom at the family’s Medfield Way unattended for 10 hours with a space heater, creating conditions that contributed to her death, Scott said.
On Friday, investigators performed a “forensic reenactment” of the incident and Scott says that examination gave them the evidence they needed to charge Wilder with involuntary manslaughter and child endangering and Sahatciu with child endangering.
Two other young children have been turned over to Franklin County Children Services and an investigation into possible neglect is under way, Scott says.