FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) — Sarah Zent’s family wanted us to know more about her and her three small children, as well as her connection to the man charged with killing them all.
A family spokesperson talked exclusively to Corinne Rose.
“The family saw way more than they should have, and they’re going to have nightmares for the rest of their lives,” Stacey Davis said.
Davis married into the victims’ family 20 years ago and remained close after a divorce.
The family designated her as their spokesperson.
She says a relative went to 26-year-old Sarah Zent’s home on Gay Street Wednesday morning and found her and her three small children in a downstairs bedroom.
“It’s devastating. It’s just absolutely devastating. To see the scene and then to see the body bags brought out, it’s more than a single person can bear,” she said.
Zent was found next to a bed that held the bodies of five-year-old Carter, three-year-old Ashton, and their two-year-old sister Aubree.
Davis says Zent and the suspect, 21-year-old Cohen Hancz-Barron, previously had a romantic relationship but that he had been staying with Zent as a friend, convincing her he wanted to turn his life around.
“She had realized probably with the last week or 10 days that he really didn’t want to work that out, that he just was hiding from the police, and was devising a strategy to get him out of her house. So we suspect that that possibly is part of the motivation. But other than that we really don’t know,” Davis said.
She says the family is large on both sides and has a lot of support in the community, but nothing can replace what they’ve lost.
“The grandma and I sat and looked at tons of pictures of them last night, and she told me all kinds of stories about them. They really had a love of life and were beautiful children,” she said.
Davis says Zent and her sister actually lived with her for two years when they were young.
“She was ornery. Her and her sister both, they were just full of life and spunk. And even as adults they didn’t have a problem telling you how it was and you never had a problem knowing how you stood with them,” she said.
She says Zent had gotten her life back on track, regained custody of her three children, and had been doing well.
“Her life was back together. She was on a good path and she loved her babies. Her babies were everything to her,” Davis said.
A family member has set up a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.
