Overview
- Police found 7-year-old William bound with duct tape in a closet on Thursday, Aug. 6, after a Mercy Health Rookwood nurse placed a 911 call reporting his mother arrived distraught and barefoot.
- Kaitlin Evans, Nessa Keaney and Kirby Rankin have been charged with murder and child endangerment and are each held on $1.1 million bond.
- Investigators told a judge they observed injuries consistent with prolonged beatings, blunt-force trauma, burn marks and alleged water torture, with Rankin reportedly disclosing involvement and implicating the other two.
- Rankin was convicted in January on misdemeanor assault and aggravated menacing in Fairfield and remained free on a $100,000 bond while awaiting sentencing, a fact that has drawn public criticism of earlier charging decisions.
- Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco is completing further tissue analysis ahead of a press conference, and prosecutors plan a mid-August grand jury review that could produce additional charges.