Mom let her 4-month-old baby suffocate after boyfriend allegedly forced him to sleep face-down

Beatrice mom sentenced after baby

Background: Beatrice Community Hospital in Beatrice, Neb. (Google Maps). Inset (top): Ashlen Zitel (Gage County Sheriff’s Office). Inset (bottom): Austin Meyn (Gage County Sheriff’s Office).

A Nebraska woman was sentenced to probation after allowing her 4-month-old baby boy to suffocate to death after her boyfriend allegedly made him sleep face-down.

Ashlen Zitel, 28, entered a guilty plea in December 2024, months after the Aug. 15, 2024, death of her baby boy.

Zitel was at work while her boyfriend, Austin Meyn, 27, watched both of her children, according to court documents obtained by KOLN, a local CBS affiliate. Meyn became frustrated that the baby was crying and allegedly swaddled the baby in blankets and placed him face-down on a mattress in the hopes that the baby would pass out, according to the documents. Zitel told Meyn in a text message that he did not have to put the baby on his back.

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