WILLIAM and TYLER JENSEN - 2 and 4 yo/ Convicted: Mother; Heather Jensen - Mesa County CO

Neglect unreported before 2 Palisade boys died from overheating in car
Posted: 01/30/2013 05:56:22 PM MST
Updated: 01/31/2013 11:22:22 AM MST
By Nancy Lofholm

PALISADE — Before Heather Jensen allegedly left her two children to die of hyperthermia in a heated car two months ago while she had sex and smoked marijuana in a nearby truck, there were clues that her youngsters might be in danger.

Friends, relatives and neighbors in the rundown apartment complex, where Jensen and the boys lived with a rotating roster of roommates, say she was a neglectful mother. She was constantly leaving her boys with whomever would take them, they said. At times, she would lock them alone inside the apartment, and neighbors would have to break in to rescue them when the boys pounded on the walls.

But that was never reported to authorities. Prior to the deaths of 2-year-old William Haze Jensen and 4-year-old Tyler Brandon Jensen after being locked in a heated car for 65 minutes in late November, only one neighbor had called the Mesa County Court to express a concern.

Court records show that neighbor reported in January 2011 that a month earlier Heather Jensen was smoking marijuana in front of her boys. It was not enough to prompt action that might have saved the lives of the tow-headed boys some acquaintances fondly called Tigger and Pooh.

"Very rarely do bad things happen to children without people around them suspecting something going on," said Mesa County Department of Social Services director Tracey Garchar. "If people would just care and call, we as a state and nation could have a huge impact on child abuse."

Jensen, 24, was arrested two weeks ago at her mother's trailer home in Florida on suspicion of child abuse resulting in death, criminally negligent homicide and false reporting to authorities. She was being extradited to Grand Junction on Wednesday. She could not be reached for comment.

The boys' father, Eric Jensen, died in a car accident in October.

"She deserves everything she has coming to her," said Heidi Raffaelli, an aunt of the boys. "Those boys were neglected. She couldn't take care of them."

Raffaelli was one of many in Heather Jensen's circle who witnessed the neglect, didn't report it and are now remorseful. Some of them are venting about their anger and guilt on a Facebook page called "Heather Jensen Childkiller."

"I am at fault. We are all at fault. Those boys would be alive today if we had done something," said Raffaelli, the mother of three young children. She said she didn't report Jensen to Social Services because "I was too busy dealing with my own issues."

Garchar said the only other report to authorities about Jensen's children came from one of Jensen's counselors. In August 2011, the counselor reported to the Palisade Police Department that Jensen told him someone had overheard an 11-year-old neighbor saying something possibly sexually suggestive to Tyler Jensen. That was deemed to be "non-criminal."

Dennis Berry, director of Mesa County Criminal Justice Services, said Jensen had been on low-level monitoring for a deferred judgment she received on a domestic violence charge nine months before the boys' deaths.

Court records show that on four occasions she tested positive for marijuana and once for opiates during court-ordered urinalysis. On three occasions, including the last time she had a scheduled check-in with her supervisor weeks before her children died, she failed to show up for the appointments.

Berry said his agency had begun the process of bringing Jensen back into court when her sons died.

He said if his agency had any knowledge that Jensen's children were not being properly cared for, her supervisors would have contacted Social Services.

"There was no indication that there was any kind of problem with the kids," he said.

The boys suffered what is commonly called heat stroke while strapped in car seats and locked in their mother's red Toyota 4-Runner with the heater on high for what investigators believe was about 65 minutes.

The 4-Runner was pulled on the side of a rural road on the Grand Mesa on the evening of Nov. 27. Jensen had driven there to meet a man.

The arrest affidavit said when she pulled up by Colten Childers' truck, she had him get out and look at her "babies" as they were sleeping in their car seats. Jensen and Childers talked for a while before she started her car with the heat on and got into Childers' truck.

Childers told investigators he saw the back door of the 4-Runner open at one point. Jensen went to the car to give her older son her cellphone to play with and to engage the child safety locks. Jensen and Childers talked, smoked pot and eventually moved to the back seat of his truck to have sex, Childers told investigators.

William died at the scene. Tyler died a week later at Children's Hospital in Denver.

Read more: Neglect unreported before 2 Palisade boys died from overheating in car - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22484238?source=pop#ixzz2Jny5No7A

We want her to get the electric chair: Grandparents speak out as daughter-in-law considers plea deal in deaths of her two young sons left inside overheated car while she had sex and did drugs

Heather Jensen, 25, 'left boys in the back seat for 90 minutes' with the heating on

William, two, dead at the scene in Grand Junction, Colorado while Tyler, four, flown to Denver hospital but died a week later

Coroner confirmed brothers' cause of death was hyperthermia
Jensen could potentially face 12 to 24 years in prison under a plea deal

Boys' grandparents found letter from Jensen on their tomb stating that their deaths were accidental and that she was a 'good mommy'
We want her to get the electric chair: Grandparents speak out as daughter-in-law considers plea deal in deaths of her two young sons left inside overheated car while she had sex and did drugs

Heather Jensen, 25, 'left boys in the back seat for 90 minutes' with the heating on

William, two, dead at the scene in Grand Junction, Colorado while Tyler, four, flown to Denver hospital but died a week later

Coroner confirmed brothers' cause of death was hyperthermia

Jensen could potentially face 12 to 24 years in prison under a plea deal

Boys' grandparents found letter from Jensen on their tomb stating that their deaths were accidental and that she was a 'good mommy'




Tragedy: Two-year-old William (left) died on November 27 in Colorado while his four-year-old brother Tyler (right) died a week later in hospital. The two had been left by their mother in an SUV with the engine running for 90 minutes

The charges stem for a tragic November incident in which Jensen allegedly left her two sons, 2-year-old William and 4-year-old Tyler, locked in a car with the heat running for more than an hour while she took drugs and had sex with a man in a truck nearby

The younger of the two boys died of hyperthermia at the scene, while his older brother passed away at a hospital a week later.

Under a possible plea deal, the details of which were not made public during the Wednesday hearing, Jensen's charges could be reduced to two counts of criminally negligent homicide carrying a sentence of 12 to 24 years in prison, according to the boys' grandparents.

'They [the prosecutor and an investigator] asked us what we would like to see done. Of course, we said, "The electric chair,"' the victims' step-grandfather, Robert Mathena, told The Denver Post. 'But we would like to see this come to an end.'

The death penalty is not an option for the 25-year-old Jensen based on her current charges.

Mathena and his wife, Diane, have spent more than two months fighting the mother in court over the fate of her sons' remains.

Tyler and Willem died just six week after the Mathenas' son and Jensen's husband, Eric, was killed in a car crash.

The woman was planning to have her boys cremated, but their grandparents won the right to lay them to rest next to their father in Palisade. The toddlers were finally buried in February, nearly four months after their deaths.

Robert Mathena told CBS Denver he was outraged to find a letter penned by Jensen in prison that was attached to the heart-shaped headstone erected on the grave for the two boys and their dad.


Call for justice: The victims' grandfather, Robert Mathena, said the family would have liked to see Jensen executed


Letter from prison: The dead boys' grandparents were shocked to discover a note from Jensen attached to their headstone stating that she was sorry, and that she was a 'good mommy' to them

The 25-year-old woman has been in jail on a $150,000 bond since her arrest last winter, but the Mathenas believe she had sent her letter to a friend who then brought it to the cemetery.

In her missive, Jensen wrote that she was sorry, called her sons' deaths an accident and described herself as a 'good mommy' who always tried to keep her kids from harm.

The letter was supplemented by a birthday card for William, who would have turned three years old last Friday.

Jensen is scheduled to be arraigned May 30, at which time the details of the plea deal could be revealed, should she choose to accept it.

Speaking to CBS Denver, Robert Denver said that he is tired of Jensen 'playing her little games' and wants her out of their lives forever.

But in an interview with The Daily Sentinel, the grandfather pointed out that seeing the 25-year-old woman walk away with three or four years of probation would not be acceptable to the family.


Devastating loss: The young mother lost both her sons in the tragic accident last year

'I'd like to see her do some serious time,' he concluded.
Jensen was arrested in January in Fort Myers, Florida, where she had been staying with family.
Law enforcement officials say the Palisade woman left her sons on November 27, 2012, in a parked SUV for 90 minutes while she met up with a male friend in a car sitting next to her own.

Mrs Jensen called 911 that night to say two-year-old William was not breathing and had no pulse from the car park close to Powderhorn Mountain ski resort in Grand Junction, Colorado.

She also told dispatchers at around 7pm that four-year-old Tyler was barely breathing.

William died at the scene while Tyler was airlifted to Aurora's children's hospital but passed away a week later.

Both children died from hyperthermia, according to the autopsy by Mesa County coroner. Hyperthermia is a condition which causes extreme overheating in the body.

Mrs Jensen told investigators that she had gone to meet a male friend on November 27 when the tragedy took place.



Adorable: Tyler (above) died at a Denver hospital while William (below) was pronounced dead at the scene



She initially told deputies that she left her sons in the car for 10 minutes to talk to a friend but later admitted that it had been much longer.

Heather Jensen was widowed after her 26-year-old husband, Eric, was killed when his car was hit head-on by an SUV on October 10. The other driver suffered minor injuries.

According to the Daily Sentinel, she let the boys play in the snow on November 27 before putting them back in her Toyota 4Runner and turning the engine on.

She then sat in the man's truck for around an hour and a half, police investigators said.

The 25-year-old, who has a history of taking anti-depressants, was on probation for a domestic violence assault against her late husband earlier this year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2318370/Heather-Jensen-Mother-considers-plea-deal-deaths-young-sons-left-inside-overheated-car-sex-did-drugs.html

Mom whose sons died locked in car guilty of child abuse


Jan. 31, 2014 at 9:58 PM


GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- A Colorado woman whose young sons died of overheating in a locked car while she had sex nearby was convicted Friday of child abuse.

A jury in Grand Junction acquitted Heather Jensen of criminally negligent homicide, the Denver Post reported. She was also found guilty of false reporting for failing to tell police how long her sons had been in the car when she found them.

The boys, William, 2, and Tyler, 4, were left in their mother's car with the heater on for about 90 minutes on a cold night in November, police said. Jensen was in a nearby car with a man, smoking marijuana and having sex.

Jensen could be sentenced to anywhere from four to 32 years on each count of child abuse resulting in death, depending on aggravating circumstances.

After she heard the guilty verdict, a sobbing Jensen collapsed in her attorney's arms.

When her boys were dying she was collapsed in the arms of another man, days after her husband, the father of her sons, died.

You got that right.  If my wife had done that to my babies I would have put a bullet between her eyes and gladly gone to jail for it.  Unfortunately they won't execute her.  She made a choice and her babies are dead.  She should pay with her life.  William

Woman who let sons die in overheated SUV gets 10 years in prison; family, friends urged leniency

9:14 AM, Mar 21, 2014
6:17 PM, Mar 21, 2014

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - A Colorado woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday for the deaths of her two young sons who overheated when they were left alone in an SUV with the motor running and the heater on.

Heather Jensen, 25, was smoking marijuana and having sex with a man in a nearby truck in November 2012 when her sons, 2-year-old William Haze Jensen and 4-year-old Tyler Brandon Jensen, died after about 65 minutes in her running Toyota 4Runner, according to court records.

Several family members and friends urged the judge to grant leniency. One said a long sentence would compound the mother's grief, the  Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported.

The judge, however, said Jensen had a duty to protect her children.

"One of the things we as parents are required to do is to put our children before ourselves, and if we don't, bad things can happen," Robison said before passing sentence, according to the Daily Sentinel. "It's up to us as parents and community members to protect them. They deserve it. They require it.”

Robison could have sentenced Jensen to anywhere from 4 to 16 years in prison, the newspaper reported. Robison also ordered Jensen to serve five years of parole after her release from prison.

Jensen was convicted Jan. 31 on two counts of fatal child abuse. She was acquitted on two counts of criminally negligent homicide.

Her attorneys have said they'll appeal the conviction.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to consider allegations that Jensen failed drug tests while she was on probation for a previous case -- a domestic violence incident with her late husband.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/woman-who-let-sons-die-in-overheated-suv-gets-10-years-in-prison-family-friends-urged-leniency03212014

"One of the things we as parents are required to do is to put our children before ourselves, and if we don't, bad things can happen," Robison said before passing sentence, according to the Daily Sentinel. "It's up to us as parents and community members to protect them. They deserve it. They require it.”


While the sentence is too light in my book at least the judge had the right point of view and some justice is done.  William

twinkletoes wrote:

LittleGirl37 wrote:

Palisade Cares wrote:Tyler and William were taken from us way too soon. This whole ordeal was preventable. My heart goes out to the grandparents, no one should have to deal with this kind of tragedy.    As of today Dec. 11 2012 the mother "Heather Jensen" is still on the streets.

...is there an ongoing investigation? How awful, for everyone involved.

The autopsy results will take several months.

Grandparents are in court to prevent cremation.  

I'm thinking someone will be arrested and charged with murder.

Thank goodness the grandparents fought for their two dead grandchildren or this would never have happened.  The boys were so beautiful, so happy, so full of life.  WTH is wrong with parents these days?