Tiny victim lies in unmarked grave

MUNCIE — Save for a small patch of bare earth, there is nothing designating a plot in Muncie's Elm Ridge Memorial Park as Jensen Wallace's final resting place.

Jensen, 5 months old when he died in a Meeker Avenue house on Feb. 10 — under circumstances that have both of his parents behind bars, at least for now — has been dead longer than he was alive.

There is no tombstone making his grave. No flowers.

Nothing.

An Elm Ridge employee on Thursday said he was saddened by the sparse appearance of the baby's unmarked grave, and had placed a flower on the site. It was later removed, likely during a cemetery cleanup, almost certainly by someone unaware of what it represented.

Since Jensen's father, 23-year-old Cory Wallace, was arrested Aug. 7, the alleged events that led to the baby's death have been known.

Indy mom arrested in baby's house fire death

Still more details became available this week with the arrest of the infant's mother, Sheryl Ashley Wallace.

Cory Wallace on the day of his arrest told investigators he had dropped his infant son onto a hardwood floor, then placed him in a playpen rather than seeking medical treatment for what proved to be fatal brain injuries.

Wallace said when he later realized his son was dead, he set fires in the baby's bedroom in a bid to cover up the cause of death.

An autopsy, however, would show the boy died before the fire was set — and reveal Jensen had suffered several injuries — including broken ribs, abrasions and cuts — as a result of earlier abuse.

Sheryl Wallace, 21, was not arrested until Wednesday, a few days after giving birth to her second child. She is expected to be formally charged next week with neglect of a dependent resulting in death and obstruction of justice, two of the five charges her husband faces.

The neglect charge is a Level 1 felony carrying up to 50 years in prison.

A probable cause affidavit filed Wednesday night detailed the story Sheryl Wallace told police, only hours after her son's death, about the fire at the family's Meeker Avenue house.

In her Feb. 11 account — largely contradicted six months later by her husband's confession — Wallace claimed that after she and her spouse noticed smoke in the house, he checked the baby's bedroom, determined the child was sleeping and the room "really wasn't that smoky."

"Since Jensen's room wasn't really bad, the first few times (Cory Wallace) had checked on it, we figured that it still wasn't that bad because (the smoke) wasn't coming from there," Sheryl Wallace told Muncie police Sgt. Linda Cook.

The third time her husband checked the baby's bedroom, Wallace said, "he saw flames."

In August, the mother recalled her deceased son as a "really happy baby" who had "never cried or fussed."

A child abuse pediatrician told authorities she believed Jensen had suffered from "abusive head trauma" — previously known as shaken baby syndrome.

Cook's affidavit also noted that in the weeks and months after they buried their son, the Wallaces never contacted Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn or city police to inquire about his cause of death, or the origin of the fire.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.