Child Sexually Abused, Killed, Autopsy Shows

An autopsy showed that the 16-month-old girl strangled last week at an unlicensed Lomita day-care home was sexually molested shortly before her death, a law enforcement official said Tuesday.

Michele Heasley of Redondo Beach had been molested “over an extended period of time” and just before she died Nov. 14, the official said.

The owners of the home, Robert and Linda Zieger, both 47, and their daughter Laura, 19, were arrested Friday at their house on West 262nd Street on suspicion of felony child endangerment. All three are free on $3,000 bail pending their arraignment Dec. 19 in South Bay Municipal Court.

Detectives from the Sheriff’s Department homicide and child abuse units declined Tuesday to say whom they suspect of the murder and sexual assault of the girl.

They also refused to say whether the discovery of sexual abuse would lead to a wider investigation of the home near the foot of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where the Ziegers cared for neighborhood children.

‘Very Delicate Stage’

“We are at a very delicate stage right now,” said Lt. Don Bear, head of the Sheriff’s Department’s Child Abuse Unit. “We don’t want to create some kind of a panic about the whole thing.”

State officials said the family does not have a day-care license.

The Ziegers could not be reached for comment.

Laura Zieger had called paramedics on the afternoon of Nov. 14 and reported that Michele had stopped breathing for no apparent reason, authorities said. She reportedly told deputies that she had been caring for the brown-haired, blue-eyed girl and six other children, ages 3 to 5.

One Sheriff’s Department official said nine children have recently been in the care of the Ziegers, but the official declined to say whether those children have been examined for signs of sexual abuse. Several parents have called deputies with questions about the day-care home. Neighbors said the Ziegers have lived in the middle-class hillside neighborhood for at least three years. Officials said they do not know how long the home has been used as a day-care facility.

Five of the Zieger’s seven children, three boys and two girls ranging in age from 8 to 16, were removed from the home last week, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said. The other two are adults.

The autopsy, conducted Nov. 16, showed that the 21-pound girl died of strangulation after a flexible object was wrapped at least twice around her neck.

The girl’s genitals were also bruised, indicating that she had been sexually assaulted, the autopsy showed. The autopsy also revealed a bruise near one of her eyebrows and two bruises on the top of her head.