A suburban Chicago couple was charged with first degree murder in the death last November of their 2-year-old daughter from a drug overdose.
Edward Weiher, aged 49, and Alexa Balen, aged 28, purchased Narcan through Uber but failed to contact emergency services until almost four hours after their young daughter started overdosing on November 6, 2024, as per court documents cited by WGN.
Upon receiving a call regarding an unresponsive child and a potential carbon monoxide leak, law enforcement in Will County rushed to the residence in Homer Glen shortly after 11:30 p.m. They found Weiher administering CPR to Trinity Balen-Weiher, while Balen and her six-year-old daughter were also present in the house.
The little girl was taken to a hospital, where she died.
Weiher informed the authorities that his portable carbon monoxide detector had shown a reading of 6,000 parts per million, a level that could lead to unconsciousness and death within approximately 20 minutes, according to WGN. Weiher stated that he had turned off the home’s boiler, opened the windows, and asserted that only the toddler had displayed any negative symptoms from the incident.
A utility company investigator found.a small leak in the basement, but it was nowhere near the levels that Weiher reported.
Police noted the house was filled with garbage, food, urine, and feces, and that they found a white substance suspected to be cocaine or heroin on countertops, tables, and a mattress where the family slept in easy reach of both children. They also found pieces of burnt foil believed to be used with heroin.
After initially sticking to the carbon monoxide story, Balen admitted to police that she and Weiher did heroin regularly. She said that she wanted to call 911 after the couple incorrectly administered a Narcan dose to the little girl, but Weiher refused and instead called Uber to pick up more Narcan, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. But it didn’t work, and the little girl stopped breathing.
Weiher eventually told the same story as Balen.
Police recovered heroin and Xanax from the home. Balen’s 6-year-old daughter was taken into custody by the Department of Children and Family Services, and she tested positive for fentanyl and cocaine.
Weiher and Balen were initially charged with child endangerment resulting in death, child endangerment, and possession of a controlled substance.
After learning that the couple didn’t call 911 for 3 hours and 41 minutes and searched “how to stop an od” before calling, the charges were upgraded to murder this week. A pathologist concluded that Trinity “would have survived” if they’d called 911 when she first began showing signs of an overdose.
The couple was granted pretrial release and is due back in court on June 27.
