Home
cover of episode 142: Bryan Kohberger Gives His Alibi, Major Arrests in Missing Kansas Moms Case, Sade Robinson's Deadly Date, & Kinsleigh Welty

142: Bryan Kohberger Gives His Alibi, Major Arrests in Missing Kansas Moms Case, Sade Robinson's Deadly Date, & Kinsleigh Welty

2024/4/18
logo of podcast Serialously with Annie Elise

Serialously with Annie Elise

Chapters

Shownotes Transcript

COVID-19 viruses like me change to fool your immune system and make you sick. But updated vaccines help protect you. Stay up to date on COVID-19 and flu vaccinations. Sponsored by Champions for Vaccine Education, Equity and Progress.

Thank you to Dreamland Baby for sponsoring today's episode. All right, guys, I'm going to share the best life hack with you if you are a parent. Dreamland Baby is the go-to solution for all exhausted new parents or existing parents who are looking to get their newborns, their babies, or their toddlers to sleep. And not just get them to sleep, but to sleep well.

See, their weighted wearable sleep solutions are an absolute must for all tired, all sleepy, and all mentally exhausted parents. With so many different amazing options to choose from, my absolute favorite, and their most popular, is the Dream Weighted Sleep Sack. And guys, it is a complete gem.

Game changer. My little girl Emmy still gets like little restless sleep when she's sleeping where she'll sometimes she'll have those reflexes. It'll wake her up. She'll have trouble falling back asleep and she's not sleeping well. I'm not sleeping well. Nobody's sleeping well when that happens. But what I love about the weighted sleep sack is that it keeps her reflexes from being too extreme or waking herself up.

It also acts like a little blanket to keep her safe, tucked in almost like in this little potato sack. It kind of feels like a hug or a parent's touch. I just love it so much and she does too. She has been sleeping so much better now that she wears this. Another thing that I love is that it's such a smart design. I feel like so many times there's these products that are designed

aren't designed by parents and this one is such a smart design because it's not only so easy to use but it has a two-way zipper so that the diaper changes are completely fuss-free you don't have to take them out of this complete crazy contraption it just makes it so simple this product has helped us tremendously and now me and emmy we are both well rested we're less stressed we're happier and we actually look forward to bedtime

And don't just take my word for it either, guys. Dreamland Baby has made a deal on Shark Tank and has been featured in Forbes. They're also sold in top retailers like Target and Nordstrom's. So, like the sharks, for those reasons, I'm in. Go to dreamlandbabyco.com and enter my code AE at checkout to receive 20% off site-wide and free shipping.

This offer is for new and existing customers. That's dreamlandbabyco.com and enter my code AE at checkout to receive 20% off site-wide and free shipping. dreamlandbabyco.com code AE. Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly.

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. I hope you guys are doing well and you are ready to be updated in what's going on out there on the true crime streets this week because, wow, there is a lot going on. There are a lot of trials going on. There are a lot of case updates happening. So, let's get started.

We've got to just go through all of it. Now, I do want to give a disclaimer, and I apologize if this is redundant, but I've seen a couple of reviews lately where there might be a little bit of confusion, so I just want to set the record straight. There has been a little bit of feedback, not by many, but by some, that there is some frustration where we put what the cases are about in the title of this episode and then...

Headline Highlights

If you guys want us to go back to doing that, we certainly can. Or if you're like, Annie, I don't give a shit. It's fine. Like, don't worry. Just keep doing what you're doing. We could do that too. But anyways, my point in saying all of that was,

What we do on this episode is we're not talking about just one case. There are usually one or two cases that we talk about more at length because there is more to discuss, especially if it's a brand new case. But the purpose of Thursday episodes is really to go through all of the updates happening this week, new cases that are emerging,

trial updates and really just kind of touch on a bunch of different things and then our Monday episodes are more of the deep dives into a singular case so just want to once again give that disclaimer especially if you're a new listener because you may notice that this episode sounds different than Monday okay

Now that that's out of the way, let's get into what we're going to talk about today because we've got updates going on in the Karen Reed case, which is happening over in Boston, and it is basically a huge conspiracy question, cover-up, cold-blooded murder. We talked about this on a recent Monday episode. We did a full deep dive on this case, but it is very, very interesting because she's accused of murdering her boyfriend, who happened to be a Boston police officer, but she's

there's a lot of evidence that really not only contradicts that, but also certainly could be attributed to reasonable doubt. I'm talking weird Google searches from other people that he was with that night, cover-ups, people telling people not to cooperate. So if you're not

invested in that case or you haven't really listened you have no idea what I'm talking about I highly suggest listening to that full deep dive episode I will link it in the show notes but let me give you the breakdown of the update because jury selection started this week for her trial and we actually were wondering if her trial was going to be pushed out if it was still going to happen we've even debated sending a team member to that trial just like we have somebody at Chad Daybell but it

It's a really interesting one. So her trial now is officially underway. It did start. It started on April 16th. And during Karen's final pretrial hearing, the state filed a motion to exclude Karen from using a third-party culprit defense. And this would really hurt her case, since that's really been what her whole defense has been about.

However, the judge denied the prosecution's motion, and they're allowing Karen to use that defense. So as of Wednesday morning, four jurors had been selected, and this trial, like I said, has been long anticipated, and it'll definitely be interesting to watch as everything unfolds because...

It is so divided. When I tell you even right now, outside of the courthouse, there are so many pedestrians standing there with signs, poster boards, all that say, free Karen Reid. So many people think that she is innocent, and we haven't seen something like that in years.

a regular layperson type of case, if you will, in a long time. We usually see that with celebrity cases, things like that, maybe something that's a little bit more high profile, but there are so many people that believe she's innocent, and I'll be honest with you, after doing our deep dive and going through all the research, I have questions. I have a lot of questions. There is a lot that is just not adding up, and

I think there is certainly enough for reasonable doubt. So we will definitely be keeping a close eye on that, and we may end up sending somebody to cover that. But in any event, we will certainly be keeping you updated on Thursday episodes as that trial is unfolding. All right, guys, so let's talk about Brian Koberger's alibi, or partial alibi, I should say. And I'm really interested to know your thoughts. So I'm going to read for you the direct document. But basically, this was in response to the state's demand for him to provide this alibi.

So it says, Mr. Koberger moved to Pullman, Washington in June of 2022. As an avid runner and hiker, he explored many areas of the Palouse. Of note, he explored Hawaii Park in July of 2022, and this became a favorite location. After the school year began, Mr. Koberger was busy with classes and with work at Washington State University, and his running and hiking decreased, but it did not stop.

Instead, his nighttime drives increased. This is supported by data from Mr. Koberger's phone, showing him in the countryside late at night and or in the early morning on several occasions. The phone data includes numerous photographs taken on several different late evenings and early mornings, including in November, and the pictures depicted the night sky.

Mr. Koberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, as he often did, to hike and run and/or see the moon and the stars. He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho, including Wawaye Park.

Mr. Koberger intends to offer testimony of Cy Ray, expert of cell tower, cell phone, and other radio frequency. And this is going to show that Brian Koberger's mobile device was south of Pullman, Washington, and west of Moscow, Idaho on November 13, 2022. That Brian Koberger's mobile device did not travel east on the Moscow-Pullman Highway in the early morning hours of November 13th.

and thus could not be the vehicle captured on video along the Moscow-Pullman Highway near Floyd's Cannabis Shop. Additional information as to Mr. Koberger's whereabouts as the early morning hours progressed, including additional analysis by Mr. Ray, will be provided once the state provides discovery requested and now subject to an upcoming motion to compel.

If not disclosed, Mr. Ray's testimony will also reveal that critical exculpatory evidence further corroborating Mr. Koberger's alibi was either not preserved or has been withheld, and then it is signed and dated.

Now, I think that's the easiest alibi in the book to be like, "Oh no, I was out for a late night drive. I was looking at the moon and the stars." I'd be curious to know if there were any photos that also corroborate that data. I think it's very easy because nobody has to really be an eyewitness to say, "Yes, I saw him there." Obviously, he's saying he was alone. He was on these late night drives. Personally, I'm not buying it, but if they're saying like they are that they have even further evidence that has been withheld and will prove that he in fact was not driving in that area,

It'll be interesting to see. I think it could even be as minor of a detail though to create reasonable doubt as though maybe he wasn't the one driving on that highway, maybe he took a different route, and maybe there was some sort of detail that was mixed up. Not saying that it all happened, guys, but I'm saying, but by saying this, they're trying to increase the credibility and the strength of their argument that the entire data or car or vehicle that was caught on camera, all of those things is not accurate and was not him.

So I guess my question for you is, do you believe it? Do you believe that the night of this heinous quadruple murder that Brian Koberger has been charged with, do you think he was just driving and taking pictures of the moon?

I personally call BS, but I know there are a lot of people who think he's innocent. So let me know what you think. Now let's also talk about an update going on in the case with the missing Kansas moms. We talked about this in the last two Thursday episodes, and it's been really, really heartbreaking. If you've been following the case of Veronica Butler and Jillian Kelly, you know that they are two missing Kansas women who went missing while they were driving to go pick up one of their sons from a birthday party.

It was very, very interesting from the get-go because the car was found. There wasn't really anything at the scene that indicated that there was foul play from the jump. However, she was in a very, very contentious custody battle with the children's father. So people automatically assumed that there was something maybe that stemmed from that. And here's all the latest updates that you need to know.

So over the weekend, Veronica and Jillian's bodies were found, and four people ended up being arrested and charged with their murders. Now, the four people arrested were Tad Colum, Tiffany Adams, and Cole and Cora Twombly.

Now, Tiffany is the grandmother of Veronica's kids, and she actually had custody of them at the time that Veronica and Jillian went missing. The affidavits were also just released, and the details in them are absolutely insane. So prior to going missing, Veronica had just recently filed with the courts for more visitation time with her kids, and a court date ended up being set.

The custody battle had been going on for years, and it seems like tensions had been high for quite some time before this. So then, on the weekend that the women went missing, Veronica was using Jillian as the supervisor for her visit because she needed a supervisor whenever she would have her visitation with her children.

But here's where it gets even crazier. Now, you might be wondering how Tad, Cora, Cole all tie into this. Well, the key to detectives learning everything was actually Cole and Cora's 16-year-old daughter. She spilled everything in an interview.

Tad and Tiffany were in a relationship, and them, along with the girls' parents and Cole and Cora, were all part of an anti-government religious group called God's Misfits, and this group meant Weakly.

So the girl, the young girl, told detectives that she had overheard multiple conversations between the four of them. And apparently a man named Paul Grice was also in these conversations. And in these conversations, they discussed Veronica allegedly not protecting her kids from sexual abuse.

The girl also told police that they had all tried to kill Veronica back in February, but that she didn't leave her house, so they were unable to. So then, fast forward to March 29th, and that's when Cora apparently told her daughter that she would be gone the next morning, and that they would be on a, quote, mission.

When they got home the next afternoon, Cora told her daughter to go clean the car and said things didn't go as planned, but they didn't have to worry about Veronica again. Now, according to Cora, the plan was to throw an anvil through Veronica's windshield. But instead of that, Cora told her daughter that her and her husband blocked the road and then diverted the two women to where then Tad, Tiffany, and Paul were all waiting.

Now, for those of you who are wondering, like, okay, Annie, well, what the hell is an anvil, and what are you talking about? They were just gonna, like, chuck that through the windshield. I don't even know how to really describe it, but basically an anvil is, like, this piece of metal, and it's something, like, blacksmiths use. You can also make it as a weapon and put it at, like, the top of a stick so it almost looks like a sword or something like that, but it's, like...

this big metal thing that has two sharp edges on either side it's really really heavy it's something that you I don't even know where you would find it guys maybe a tool shed and look it up it's a n v i l but I don't even know what the plan was that they were just gonna like chuck this through the windshield and it was gonna kill them but

bad plan, which they didn't end up doing that, obviously. But that was apparently the original plan, and then instead they just diverted him off the road to where Tad, Tiffany, and Paul were all waiting. So then when detectives pulled the search warrants, they found that Tiffany had made multiple incriminating Google searches. These searches were about taser pain levels, gun shops, prepaid cellular phones, and also how to, like, get somebody out of their house, like how to coax them out of their house.

So in February, Tiffany also bought multiple prepaid phones at a local Walmart, and then just a week before the murders, she had bought five stun guns at a local gun shop. The affidavits and some of the burner phones that they found stopped transmitting that morning in the vicinity of a pasture, where they also had found, quote, that a hole had been dug and filled back in and then covered with hay.

The owner of the property confirmed that Tad rented that property from him and had brought a skid steer over and dug that hole on March 29th. So I think it's safe to say that was probably where they were planning on disposing of the bodies. But listen to this clip to kind of give another full rundown. Investigators expected to confirm that two bodies recovered over the weekend are 27-year-old Veronica Butler and 39-year-old Jillian Kelly. This is what the authorities said in a press conference today.

This case was tragic. You have two people who are dead and four people that committed an absolutely brutal crime. Investigators believe the two women were victims of a targeted hit. Once we arrived on scene and we gained a little bit of information, we felt this wasn't a random deal, all right?

We felt that with some of the information coming in that it was more targeted and we started to look in those areas that we were pointed to. News Nation reported over the weekend multiple puddles of blood were found around their abandoned vehicle.

It's believed to come from the victims after they might have been shot. I don't know, guys. This case seems to be getting more and more wild every single day with all the new information that is released, the motives, the players involved. I mean, it goes so deep, and you have this family, you have this group of people who were in this government religious group or anti-government religious group, I should say, called God's Misfits. And it's just so tragic because now at the end of the day,

These two families, like, all these kids lost their parents, they lost their mothers. It's just so sad and senseless. Why? Because of a custody battle? Or was there truth to any of the allegations? Like I said, we're going to keep learning more and more. So now going into another case that so many of you guys have been requesting that I cover. It's the case of Sade Robinson.

But before we get into that case, we are going to take a quick break and hear from one of the sponsors in today's episode. Okay, so back into this case, it's about Sade Robinson. So on April 1st, 2024, Sade Robinson, a 19-year-old college student in Wisconsin, had a first date planned with a 33-year-old guy named Maxwell Anderson. Now, everything was supposed to go as planned, but for some reason, Sade didn't show up the next day at work.

Now, her co-workers knew that this was not like her at all, and they immediately thought that something was wrong, especially knowing that she had gone on a date the evening before. So they called her all day, but she never answered her phone. And it also wasn't just her co-workers that didn't hear from Sade. Her other friends couldn't get a hold of her either.

So later that night, after she seemingly just, I don't know, disappeared after not showing up for work, one of her friends decided to call the police. So then the police went over to her apartment to do a welfare check. But Sade wasn't there either. Shortly after, an investigation into her disappearance actually began, and it wasn't long until things started getting very, very terrifying. Now,

Now, apparently, the morning after her date with Maxwell, when she didn't show up for work, somebody discovered her car and it was on fire. Now, despite the fire and whoever said it clearly trying to destroy evidence, investigators were able to identify the outfit that she had been wearing the night of the date, as well as part of her phone, and it was inside this burning car.

Later that day, police were then called to the scene of another gruesome discovery. A human leg was found on the beach in Warnemont Park, and this leg had appeared to be sawn off at the hip. A few days after that, as police continued to canvass the area where her car was found, they found even more remains. Now this time, it was a foot, and also, quote, what appeared to be human flesh. And unfortunately, the remains that were found were in fact Sade's.

Sade's mom and a friend of hers shared with police what they knew, which really turned out to crack open this case. Sade's phone location from the night that she was supposed to go on that date showed her going to a seafood restaurant and then going over to Maxwell's house, then later to a park, and that park was where her leg was found.

But ultimately, the police needed to find Maxwell, and they needed to do it, obviously, as soon as possible. And once they did, he was arrested and charged with murder, mutilation, and arson. According to court documents, police believed that Maxwell killed and then dismembered Sade. Now, from the latest update from the police, they're still searching for more of her remains and even other evidence. But during a press conference, somebody asked if Maxwell was linked to any other missing women in the area. But the

But the sheriff said that so far, there hasn't been any evidence of any other victims. However, as you can imagine, Sade's murder has absolutely rocked the community. A GoFundMe for her memorial service also has been created, and it says that Sade was a loving daughter, a cherished sister, and a dear friend to many.

It also says that she was originally from Mississippi and that she was about to graduate from Milwaukee Tech and pursue a career in criminal justice. Friends and strangers coming together to remember 19-year-old Sade Robinson. Sade is me.

She's all of us. She's every little girl that wanted to be loved. According to prosecutors, 33 year old Maxwell Anderson killed and dismembered the 19 year old after the two went on a first date. It could have been any one of our daughters. She was just going on a date. Who expected it to end like this? Last week, yellow crime scene tape stretched around the perimeter of Anderson's home. Monday night, a flood of pink.

Pink tape wrapped around trees. Pink balloons filled the front porch and pink spray paint spelled out justice for shut a fashion designer and I've had this pink corduroy fabric forever with nothing to do with it 'cause I never assumed I would do anything with pink corduroy and.

What better thing to do with it? What do you want the message to be that she was loved community members like DD Davis and Nicole Green say they didn't know Robinson, but that didn't matter if it happens to somebody else's child. It might as well happen to mine, but we need to just be out here and support the family with peace, kindness and compassion and let the Lord do the revenge. But we need to search for her.

It's just absolutely senseless and so, so heartbreaking. I mean, so many times we hear of these guys now going on first dates, meeting people online, and just like, and women too, but killing them, dismembering them, attacking them, and it just is such a huge reminder to always be careful, and especially if you are online dating. I know that's like the new wave of the future, not even the future, it's been happening now for like a decade, but...

Always tell people where you're going. Put your tracker on your phone with your friends. Just take every extra precaution that you possibly can to make sure that people know where you should be, where you are at, and who you're with so that, God forbid, if something happens, you can be found hopefully safe and alive. And worst case, absolute worst case scenario, they'll be able to find who was responsible.

Speaking of who's responsible, let's talk about Riley Strain and some updates going on there. As a reminder, Riley Strain was a 22-year-old college student who disappeared while he was in downtown Nashville with a couple of his fraternity brothers. Unfortunately, after a two-week search, his body was found in the Cumberland River. Now, police have ruled his death as an accident, and they have said that there was not foul play involved. But his parents? They are not so sure.

Recently, a new interview with Brian Enten and Riley Strain's parents came out, and what was said was very shocking, including the fact that the 911 operator on the call about his disappearance said, and I quote, So initially when Riley disappeared, people who live in Nashville or who have traveled there spoke out and said that people getting roofied at downtown Nashville bars was not only common, but it happens quite a bit.

and also that the Nashville Police Department wasn't doing anything about this because it would hurt tourism. Now at the time, there was no proof that Riley was roofied, but clearly his family believes much differently. He had sent me a text and said that he had ordered a, he was drinking a rum and coke and it didn't taste good. And I said, well, you probably shouldn't drink it then. He goes, well, it tastes like barbecue.

And I go, well, that sounds awful. And he said, well, it sounds good, but it's not. When a rum and Coke normally tastes the same, I mean, that's not something that you really normally taste any different. Right. It has a very consistent taste. Yes. Yes. And that's why I'm like, you probably shouldn't drink that then. Do you think that could have something to do with what happened? Yeah. Maybe there was something in it.

That shouldn't have been. I mean, even if there wasn't foul play at the river, but if something happened in the bar, that's the kind of thing that could hurt someone else. Exactly. Exactly.

And you hear about that happening to women, but it likely happens to men too, I'm sure. From the stories that we've been told from Uber drivers and just different individuals that reached out to us that either happened to a family member or happened to them in Nashville,

There's something there. There's something going on in that town. It just feels like you come up to a stopping point every time we get somewhere. It almost just feels like there's something holding everybody back from fully giving us what we need and...

There's just something there. There is something there. It's just... - Big money or bad publicity. - Right, we don't know, but we truly wanna try to help the situation and help others. - Nobody needs to go through what we've had to go through the way that we've had to go through it. I mean, they're still telling us it's an accident. Fine, show me the proof that you have that it's an accident.

I'll accept it.

So now Ashley questions of whether Riley was roofied based on that conversation that he had with his mom and obviously the way that he was acting in some of the surveillance video that didn't make sense. We've learned there's a state investigation now on top of the local investigation, which apparently has ended and isn't continuing. The state now looking at cameras from the bars, according to the family, trying to figure out, you know, what he drank. Did someone slip something in his drinks? All of that now being looked at, Ashley.

Not only is some of this new information extremely disturbing, but in my opinion, it's pretty compelling that something or someone else may have been at play here. I just truly hope that his family gets the answers that they're looking for, and if somebody was responsible, they are fully held accountable.

Now, guys, this next case is absolutely maddening, and the details are very, very difficult to hear. So I do want to give all of you just kind of this blanket trigger warning going forward for this case. Now, Kinsley Welty was a five-year-old girl living in Indiana. On Tuesday, April 9th, Indianapolis police were called around 5.15 p.m. to a mobile home park, and they were called on a report of an unresponsive child.

When the officers arrived, they found this unresponsive child, Kinsley, inside the house. Officers saw that she looked malnourished and she had feces and lice all over her face, her hair, and her feet.

Police also said that they found a small closet that was covered in feces, where Kinsley was actually forced to spend most of her time inside of it. And there was even a large dresser blocking this door so that she could not get out. Remember, she is just five years old. So Kinsley was taken to the hospital, but unfortunately, she later died from severe malnutrition.

According to court documents, at the time of her death, Kinsley weighed less than she did when she was two years old. At five years old. It is so incredibly just heartbreaking and it makes your stomach turn. I know mine is. Now, Kinsley's mom, Toni McClure, told police that she routinely put Kinsley in the closet and did, quote, "...the bare minimum to feed her, even though she often complained that she was hungry." That's a direct quote. A freaking monster.

She also said that she knew that her actions would kill Kinsley, but she wanted her out of her life, so she did it anyway. Police also said that the mom's boyfriend, Ryan Smith, admitted that Kinsley had been kept in that closet ever since Thanksgiving, and she was rarely ever allowed outside of it.

He told police he was concerned that Kinsley was losing weight, but he didn't want to call 911 because he loved Tony, Kinsley's mom. So Tony and Ryan were both arrested, which, like, good riddance, thank God. And Tony was charged with murder, criminal confinement, and battery. The boyfriend, Ryan, was charged with three counts of neglect and also criminal confinement since he lived with Tony and lived with Kinsley.

Additionally, Kinsley's grandma, Toni's mom, was also arrested. And she was charged with neglect because she should have done something to get Kinsley help when she first noticed that things were not right.

And it gets even worse. So according to court records, Kinsley's grandma, Tammy, had told the police that CPS had been at her house four times looking for Kinsley and Tony due to the reports on this little girl's condition. And she said that she never helped child services locate Tony for any of these reports and that she wanted to give her daughter, Kinsley's mom, a chance to get everything together for Kinsley, which is like, no, no, no, there's no time to wait.

circumstances are now dire, it's not time to hope she gets her shit together, it's time to intervene and save this child's life.

Now, the grandma, Tammy, also said that she saw how Kinsley's physical condition worsened over the last five to six months. She also said that Kinsley was, quote, completely normal around October of 2023. And she thought about calling the police, but said that she never did because she didn't want to risk her daughter, Toni, losing custody of her other children. Which, the fact that she had other children in her possession, I mean, that is absolutely frightening.

Grandma Tammy also admitted to tying Kinsley to a bed using duct tape when Kinsley was staying with her because apparently she wouldn't stay in bed and she wanted to get up to eat or because she was thirsty, which, hi, that's what five-year-olds do. Yes, you have to feed them. You have to give them water. And what makes this case so disturbing, even more so, is that Kinsley was actually taken away from her mother when she was just three weeks old for failure to thrive.

At the time, police officers said that it was, quote, one of the worst living conditions that they had ever seen and that it was a repulsive sight. That is a direct quote saying, it appeared the trash had never been taken out. Gnats were flying all over the kitchen. They were flying all over the living room. It was disgusting.

In the bathroom, police saw that feces had never even been cleaned from the toilet, and the bedrooms were described as a hazardous nightmare for an adult, let alone a toddler and a newborn. At the time, three-week-old Kinsley was seen shaking and also appeared very malnourished. When Kinsley was taken to the hospital that time, doctors said that Kinsley had somehow lost weight in her first three weeks of life, and she had filth on her head and even on her little hands.

Tony pled guilty to one count of neglect back in May of 2020 for all of this. She got a little more than 400 days probation after the judge in that case then suspended her sentence. Which, I mean, that just goes to show this has been happening for years, for pretty much Kinsley's entire life, and nobody thought to intervene? Like, how on earth is that even possible?

Since Kinsley's death, her paternal grandparents have also spoken out, and they're the ones that took in Kinsley two different times when her mom had lost custody of her. And all of the pictures of Kinsley that are available online where she actually looks like a normal, healthy little girl had been taken when she was under the grandparents' care, not her mother's or even her maternal grandmother. Her grandfather, Brian, said, "...we were planning on keeping her, but DCS has their policy of reunification, and that is absolutely horrible."

Reunification from the get-go is the problem in my eyes because no matter what the parent does, their goal is reunification. And we have seen this time and time again where CPS, DCF, they all fail. They all say, yes, reunify them with the parents, keep them with the mother, keep them with the parents. Two

To an extent. When somebody is severely malnourished, when a child is losing weight, when they are physically duct taped or barricaded in a bedroom, no, no, no, no, no. Reunification should not and should never, ever be the goal.

So as I'm sure you can imagine, as I'm sure you're probably feeling right now, I know I'm like seething with anger. Kinsley's horrific, atrocious, senseless death has caused major, major outrage in the community. And now city council members are even calling on the Indiana DCS to make changes in how they handle cases moving forward.

Take a listen. Court documents reveal the Department of Child Services had previously removed her from the home. Our Logan Gay spoke to the counselor who's demanding a larger investigation.

City County Councilor Joshua Bain is fired up after the tragic death of five-year-old Kinsley Welty. Clearly the system failed her, failed her all her life. The court system failed her her whole life. We cannot fail her in her death. Her mother was arrested for child neglect, resulting in death after the five-year-old died from malnourishment. To see how she was treated the last five or six months of her life, she may not have even known what it meant to laugh or smile.

of this compelled Bain to write this letter to the Department of Child Services to demand a full and thorough investigation into this case. To figure out that my 13-month-old daughter weighed more than this five-year-old child did, you know, something clearly has to be done.

It is just absolutely outrageous and I know I'm sounding like a broken record, especially if you listen to all my episodes and you watch my 10 to life videos on YouTube, but what is it going to take? What on earth is it going to take for the system to get their shit together? I mean, honestly, how many times do we have to see children fall through the cracks and literally be tortured, starved, beaten,

raped for years and years to where that's all they know from their entire life how many times do we have to see that and bear witness to that for something to change and i get it we're understaffed underfunded all of the things and so it's so much easier said than done trust me i hear you

But there has to be somebody who is smarter than me, smarter than you guys, smarter than everybody. Like, there's got to be somebody smart out there who can just be like, hey, here's the unlock. We need to put one more checkpoint in place when a file is opened. Or we need to make it a rule that...

we safeguard the children and err on the side of caution first, and then after we see consistency, then they're reunified. Because this just absolutely enrages me. And I know I'm getting heated, guys, and I'm really, I'm sorry for that. It's just these cases when it comes to children, it's

They irk me to my core. And if you could see me in the studio right now, I literally have goosebumps all over my arms because it just angers me so, so much. Just like all the shit that's going on right now with Chad Daybell and his trial, which is...

If you're following that, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you're not following that, I am putting out episodes every single Friday that give you the full trial recap of what's gone down this week. Because like I said, we do have a correspondent there from our team in the courtroom every single day watching it go down. And

What I just say, the narcissism of this man, the freaking audacity of this man, he has managed to somehow brainwash his children in my opinion. It is so sick and twisted and we're finding out more details about that case than we never even knew.

So check back tomorrow for that episode. It'll be on this feed, and we're going to be talking through the entire trial recap, everything that's gone down this week. If you haven't caught up yet, the trial started last week, so you can go back to the previous episode. The full week one trial recap is there.

And Lindsay, our correspondent, is answering our questions. She's talking to family members there. She's talking to other news outlets there. So she'll be on the episode with me as well and breaking down everything because she's been looking Chad in his scummy, dirty eyes every single day. I'm kind of honestly surprised she hasn't disintegrated by now just from making eye contact with that monster. But she'll be breaking it all down for us. So that'll come out tomorrow.

um other than that guys man I need to go out and like take a drink of diet coke and like do some chanting and collect myself because I'm just like on a whole nother level right now sorry for getting so crazy this episode I'm just so over all these cases with these children but I appreciate you sticking through and hearing them and hearing what these poor children and victims all of them went through because that's what's so important that is the goal keep their voices heard and

Bring those who are responsible to justice. Hold them accountable. Create awareness. All the things. So I will be back on the mic with you tomorrow for the Chad Daybell recap. I also am releasing a full case report

bonus episode that comes out every single Friday. You can get access to those through Apple Podcasts or through Patreon. They're all ad-free, but it's if you need a little extra true crime fix. And then aside from that, I'll be back on the mic with you first thing Monday morning with a full mega, mega, mega deep dive of a case. All right, guys, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Serialistly. And until the next one, please be kind to each other, stay safe, be nice, don't kill people, and just...

be a good human please all right guys thank you i will talk with you very soon i am signing off