(Marion County, FL) Today, 43-year-old Melissa Waiman Schroer was sentenced to the maximum punishment of 30 years in prison for the 2019 death of 2-month-old Wailan Roy Schroer. Back in May of this year, jurors delivered their verdict finding Schroer guilty of Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child.
“Here we have a case where one young child senselessly dies, and two other children are forever impacted by their sibling’s death,” state Chief Walter Forgie of the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office. “Given this and other contributing circumstances, our Assistant State Attorneys asked for the maximum sentence possible for Schroer and were successful in obtaining the just sentence.”
On December 11, 2019, law enforcement officers were dispatched to the Villages Hospital in reference to a deceased infant. Upon arrival, officers were informed that the infant was found unresponsive at a
residence located off Southeast 36th Avenue in Ocala, Florida, prior to being driven to the hospital.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the home, where the defendant advised that she had put the infant to sleep while she took a nap. Schroer was awakened by another child in the residence who indicated the victim was not breathing. At the time, Schroer informed her husband, Jeffery Schroer, that Wailan was not breathing. J. Schroer then grabbed the infant and drove him to the Villages hospital. The victim was pronounced deceased upon arrival by medical personnel.
Major Crimes Detectives separately interviewed both defendant Schroer and her husband, who gave varying accounts of events leading up to the victim’s death. On February 5, 2020, the Medical Examiner’s Office concluded its autopsy of the victim and determined the cause of death to be methamphetamine toxicity with contributing conditions of dehydration and inanition. The victim’s death was subsequently ruled a homicide. Based upon this information and a lengthy investigation, probable cause was established for the defendant and her husband’s arrest.
Authorities attempted to make contact with defendant Schroer and J. Schroer but were unsuccessful. It was later learned that the couple had fled the state and were now living in Florence, Kentucky. Both the defendant and J. Schroer were apprehended on December 10, 2021, by the Boone County Sheriff’s Office and extradited to Florida.
The defendant’s husband, J. Schroer, was charged with the same crime and is pending prosecution.
This case was successfully prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Marissa Meyer and Katrina Self.
Published on 06/29/2026.