Molestations of 2 More Day-Care Infants Alleged

Medical examinations have uncovered evidence of sexual molestation of two more infants who were cared for at the Lomita day-care home where a 16-month-old girl was allegedly molested and strangled last month, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Thursday.

Lt. Gil Leslie said private physicians have examined five of about 12 children recently in the care of Robert and Linda Zieger, owners of the home, and found signs that two children under the age of 2 had been sexually molested.

There is no evidence to connect the Ziegers or anyone else to the alleged molestation of the two infants, Leslie said.

The Ziegers and their 19-year-old daughter, Laura, were arrested on suspicion of child endangerment shortly after the death Nov. 14 of 16-month-old Michele Heasley, and are free on bail pending arraignment on Dec. 19. No one has been charged with the infant’s death. Authorities said Michele had been sexually assaulted and strangled at the Zieger home.

The Ziegers could not be reached for comment Thursday.

In the wake of the child’s death and the medical evidence of molestations, detectives from the Sheriff’s Department child abuse unit are recommending physical examinations of other children cared for at the Zieger home, Leslie said. Most parents have agreed to have their children examined, he said.

Calls From Parents

Sheriff’s officials said they do not know how many children have passed through the house during its seven years of operation as a day-care facility.

“We are getting phone calls from people saying they had kids go through there,” said one official who requested anonymity.

About 12 children were being cared for at the home when it was closed last month, the official said.

But the official and others associated with the case said parents should not be unduly alarmed and said there is no evidence that the infants, or other children, were abused at the Zieger home.

Leslie said officials are trying to avoid sensational reports of child abuse that could conjure up images of the highly publicized McMartin Pre-School molestation charges and hamper the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation.

Officials would not say who conducted the examinations of the children or disclose the nature of the abuse they say was uncovered.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s homicide detectives are continuing their investigation of Michele’s death.

According to investigators’ statements filed in court this week, children at the day-care home, including the Ziegers’ 12-year-old daughter, have contradicted the couple’s statements to authorities about where the baby girl was found.

Linda Zieger, 47, told investigators that she went to check the baby in the couple’s upstairs bedroom just before 3 p.m. and found the infant not breathing, according to the affidavits, which were filed in Los Angeles Municipal Court. Her husband, Robert, also 47, agreed with that account.

But a 7-year-old boy being cared for at the home and the Ziegers’ daughter said the infant was found in a downstairs bedroom, the affidavits said.

The 12-year-old cried after talking to detectives and said “she was not supposed to talk to us about anything and now feared she would be in trouble,” the affidavits said.

They said that Michele was killed when “a thin twine, rope, string, cord-type of material” was wrapped around her neck.

Several pieces of rope, ribbon and cord were removed from the home in a search by sheriff’s deputies, the court papers show, but there is no indication that any of those articles killed the infant.

Paramedics tried to revive the baby, but she died a short time later at a Torrance hospital.

The police reports also indicate that the Ziegers sometimes used a “harness device” to tether children to walls.

At least two parents told investigators they had no complaints about their children’s care at the Ziegers, although one mother complained that her son had been spanked, although not severely, with a wooden spoon. The affidavits quoted one father who said his 2-year-old daughter had “strap marks” on her wrists after coming home from the Ziegers’.

And two children cared for at the home said the older Zieger children shook them aggressively or hit them, the court papers say.

The sworn statements make no mention of any parents removing their children from the home because of the incidents.