$1M Trust Fund House Of Terror: Dad Denied Pretrial Release In Toddler's Death

HOMER GLEN — Will County Judge Dan Rippy rejected efforts by Will County Public Defender Andrew Sanchez seeking the pretrial release of Homer Glen criminal defendant client, Edward Weiher, who is charged with felony child endangerment in last week's suspected heroin and fentanyl death of Weiher's 2-year-old daughter Trinity.

"The defendant does pose a danger not only to his surviving children, but a risk to the community as a whole," Rippy declared on Thursday morning.

By mid-morning, Weiher appeared in Courtroom 405 for his pretrial hearing under the SAFE-T-Act. The Will County State's Attorney's Office gave the judge a flash drive of photos taken by the Will County Sheriff's Office showing the unsafe living conditions inside Weiher's $1 million Homer Glen home on Thorn Apple Drive.

Weiher, age 49, and his girlfriend, Alexa Balen, 27, moved into the $1 million home a few months ago and proceeded to turn the house into a disgusting and filthy home, prosecutors argued Thursday.

During his interrogation, Weiher told sheriff's detectives that he had drug dealers visit and enter his home, prosecutors told Rippy. The home where Trinity died was covered with bugs, blood, feces, soiled diapers, and spoiled and rotten food. Cocaine, fentanyl and drug paraphernalia were throughout the entire home, prosecutors said.

Weiher's trust fund home was so disgusting that Trinity and her 6-year-old sister were not able to sleep in the beds, prosecutors told Rippy.

"He had absolutely no regard for human life, much less his children," Tasker told Judge Rippy.

At Thursday's SAFE-T-Act hearing, Will County's prosecutors noted that Trinity was dying from the apparent drug overdose for approximately four hours before Weiher and Balen finally called 911.

The call to 911 was made at 11:27 p.m. Balen used her phone to make her first Google search seeking information on how to stop an overdose at 7:46 p.m., according to prosecutors.

"So this child was lying there dying nearly four hours, dying of an overdose, and they were unable to take care of her," Tasker argued.

On the night of Nov. 6, Trinity died of a suspected overdose from ingesting heroin and cocaine, according to prosecutors. The toxicology results are still pending; the child showed so signs of any blunt force trauma.

Trinity's 6-year-0ld sister was later admitted into Christ Hospital after doctors discovered she had cocaine and fentanyl in her system, according to prosecutors.

During Thursday's hearing, Tasker revealed that Weiher moved into his family's trust fund home only a few months ago. He also has another home in Mokena, according to authorities. Prosecutors informed Judge Rippy that Weiher owns a small business, which is a machine shop, and he has a few employees who work for him.

And even though Weiher turned his family's money into a disgusting dwelling, he managed to keep one room within the Homer Glen home, his video gaming room, "pristine," the prosecutors noted.

As for Trinity's mother, former Florida resident Alexa Balen, 27, she is also charged as a co-defendant in the death of Trinity.

However, Balen remains in an area hospital, and she will be taken to the Will County Jail upon her release, according to Will County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Dan Jungles.

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

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