Family of slain 5-year-old girl call for child welfare reform: 'This was preventable'

The signs of 5-year-old Kinsleigh Welty’s abuse were obvious, local officials have said.

Now, family members of the slain girl are calling for changes to the state agency responsible for child welfare, claiming workers assigned to her case should’ve spotted the girls’ injuries and yet failed time and time again to intervene.

Sunday, from the steps of the Indiana Statehouse, Welty’s family and dozens of others called for reform at the Department of Child Services (DCS).

“She will forever be 5 years old due to the abuse, starvation and torture from those who were supposed to love and protect her at all costs,” said Carrie Hogan, the child’s great aunt. “This was preventable, and the public deserves to know.”

In what police called a “horrifying” case of child neglect, Kinsleigh died April 9 from malnourishment and neglect after being forced to live for months in a squalid closet.

Welty’s mother, 29-year-old Toni McClure, is charged with murder in the case with prosecutors seeking life without parole, a higher sentence than the 65-year maximum penalty state law carries for murder convictions. Prosecutors also charged Ryan Smith, McClure's boyfriend, 27, and Tammy Halsey, Kinsleigh's grandmother, 53, with neglect in the death.

Hogan, and other members of Kinsleigh’s family, said the case should have never reached this deadly end – pointing to previous times when Welty and her siblings were removed from McClure’s care. Court records show McClure pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent in 2020 in a separate case out of Morgan County.

Marion County’s top prosecutor in recent weeks has also voiced concerns about the obvious signs of Kinsleigh’s abuse and failures to intervene and recently pointed out that Department of Child Services workers were inside the home on the day she died.

“Every single adult let that child down,” Prosecutor Ryan Mears said outside a courtroom moments before filing charges against McClure and Smith.

Mears stated that “multiple people” will be charged in Kinsleigh's death and his investigators are looking into what child welfare workers knew about the girl's living conditions before she died. He did not definitively say whether he intends to bring criminal charges against the workers.

The case was also recently brought up to Gov. Eric Holcomb, who shared his condolences and called the child’s death “gut-wrenching.” He also cautioned against casting all blame for the death on the Department of Child Services.

“It's the worst day imaginable for all who are concerned. No one takes this more seriously than DCS, and the employees there," Holcomb said. "They are dealt the toughest cases imaginable, and they will continue to do their job and follow the law. They will follow up. They unfortunately can't always predict evil from striking, but they're gonna continue to do their job and they have been.”

He told reporters Friday that the child welfare agency has his support and promised to “go to battle” to get more resources.

“It’s easy to blame others for horrific instances that happened in someone else’s home,” he said.

What happened to Kinsleigh Welty?

According to court documents, Kinsleigh was locked inside a closet of a trailer home in the 6500 block of Denver Drive on the southwest side of Indianapolis. Her short hair was matted and lice covered her face and hair. Small handprints marked with fecal matter were found inside the closet door.

McClure called 911 when her daughter collapsed and began "gurgling." Kinsleigh, who weighed only 21 pounds, was taken to Riley Hospital for Children where she died.

Earlier that day, McClure told a Department of Child Services caseworker that Kinsleigh was with her grandparents. McClure told detectives a caseworker visited the home because her newborn had tested positive for THC, the chief intoxicant in marijuana.

Reporter Jade Thomas contributed to this report.

Contact reporter Sarah Nelson at sarah.nelson@indystar.com

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Family of slain girl call for DCS reform: 'This was preventable'