Hamilton County Coroner Dr Lakshmi Sammarco broke her silence on the death of seven-year-old William Evans who was found duct-taped and dead in a closet on August 6. She said she froze the moment she opened the door of the closet. The child was co-parented by his mother, Kaitlin Evans, and Kirby Rankin and Nessa Keaney. Dr Lakshmi said those who are in the profession always say that they expect the worst, but they get it. There were multiple bruises and burn marks on the body of the boy and some of the injuries were old.The child was bound so that he could not move, but there was no tape on his mouth. But the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.Kaitlin Evans, Rankin and Keaney are charged with murder and endangering children in the death of the developmentally disabled child. They are all on suicide watch at the Hamilton County jail and are each being held on a $1.1 million bond. Rankin and Keaney use ‘she’ as their pronoun though they were listed as male.They all pleaded not guilty and are expected to return to court later this month.Sammarco said the home was filled with toys; she even had to walk through a room full of LEGOS to get to the bedroom where William was found. She mentioned there were no photos of the young boy in the house.Sammarco said she thinks William had been dead for about a day by the time his body was found.
William’s death: What did the detective reveal?
The three accused in the murder of the 7-year-old, including mother Kaitlin Evans.
Kyle Smith, a veteran Cincinnati homicide detective, told the court on Friday that William was severely beaten over the past two months. He said William was choked by being water tortured and burn tortured. “We believe the child was choked underwater, held underwater for a long period of time,” he said. He also revealed in court that Rankin had disclosed her involvement in the “prolonged child abuse incident” and implicated Evans and Keaney as actively participating.Mother came to hospital, said partner was trying to kill her and childA woman who said she was the boy’s mother walked barefoot into the emergency room at Mercy Health Rookwood in Norwood and lay on the floor Thursday afternoon, according to a 911 call placed by a hospital supervisor. The woman repeatedly claimed someone tried to kill her and kidnapped her son, identifying that person as her partner, Kirby Rankin.Kirby Rankin, 33, was convicted last month of misdemeanor assault and aggravated menacing outside Jungle Jim’s International Market on Jan. 4.
