The coroner found fatal head trauma and injuries of different ages as prosecutors built a 13-count case against three co-parents.
CINCINNATI, Ohio — When Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco examined the death of 7-year-old William Evans-Ellis, the findings extended beyond the head injury that killed him. Authorities documented a broken upper-arm bone, numerous bruises of different ages and other injuries, evidence that prosecutors say fits a broader pattern of prolonged abuse inside the Oakley home where William lived.
The medical findings now form one part of an aggravated murder case against William’s mother, Kaitlin Evans, and two other adults who shared the Madison Road apartment, Kirby Rankin and Nessa Keaney. Prosecutors have described the three as co-parents responsible for William’s care. A grand jury has indicted each on 13 counts, and each has pleaded not guilty. The distinction between the fatal injury, older injuries and other alleged abuse is likely to be important because the charges address both William’s death and what prosecutors say happened to him during the weeks before police found him Aug. 6.
Sammarco identified blunt-force trauma to William’s head as the cause of death. She also said his upper-arm bone had been fractured and that he had bruises in numbers too great to count, with some appearing older than others. Additional testing, including toxicology and DNA work, was still underway when the coroner publicly discussed the case in August. Sammarco also said authorities were waiting for William’s medical records, underscoring that the initial findings were part of an investigation that had not yet reached its evidentiary endpoint.
The coroner estimated that William had probably been dead for at least a day by the time authorities entered the apartment. That estimate placed new importance on events immediately preceding the discovery. Prosecutors say Evans, Rankin and Keaney left the apartment Aug. 5 to take a dog for veterinary care while William remained behind. The publicly reported findings do not establish an exact hour of death, however, and the prosecution will have to connect the medical evidence with other testimony and records if the timing becomes a contested issue.
Police had not gone to the home because someone there reported an unresponsive child. Instead, the chain of events began when Evans arrived at a nearby emergency department Aug. 6 and told staff that Rankin was threatening to kidnap and kill William. Hospital personnel alerted authorities. Officers who went to the Madison Road residence found William inside a closet. Authorities said his body had been restrained with duct tape. Emergency personnel pronounced him dead, and police arrested the three adults.
Investigators soon alleged that the injuries reflected more than one episode. At an early court hearing, a homicide detective described evidence consistent with repeated physical beatings. Police also alleged that William had been held underwater and that there were signs consistent with burns. Those assertions remain allegations rather than trial findings. The coroner’s publicly reported conclusions are narrower: fatal blunt-force trauma, a fracture, extensive bruising and other wounds that remained under examination.
The medical record also intersects with prosecutors’ allegations about the defendants’ responsibilities as caregivers. Prosecutor Connie Pillich has said all three adults acted as William’s parents in the home and therefore had obligations to protect him, provide care and obtain medical attention when necessary. That theory does not require every defendant to have personally caused every injury for all of the child-endangerment allegations to be relevant. Still, criminal responsibility for each count must be established separately, and defense attorneys have already disputed the state’s effort to portray the defendants as equally responsible.
Evans’ lawyer argued soon after the arrests that evidence would show someone else caused the child’s death and described his client’s alleged conduct as a failure to act rather than an act of violence. Keaney’s lawyer similarly maintained that she was the least culpable of the three and said she tried to treat some of William’s injuries. Those positions could place medical evidence at the center of the defense as well as the prosecution: how old particular injuries were, when they would have become apparent and whether any defendant sought or withheld care may affect how jurors evaluate individual responsibility.
The investigation broadened further when prosecutors disclosed evidence they say points to planning before William’s death. According to the Aug. 13 indictment, Evans, Rankin and Keaney exchanged Signal messages beginning July 1 that are cited as acts in alleged conspiracies. Prosecutors also allege Rankin sent Keaney an audio message July 4 containing a plan to kidnap and kill William. The contents of the communications have not been fully released, and the defense has not had the opportunity at trial to challenge the state’s account of their meaning.
Those allegations led the grand jury to approve charges beyond the murder and child-endangerment counts filed at the outset. Each defendant was indicted on one count of aggravated murder, four counts of murder, one count of kidnapping, one count of felonious assault, four counts of endangering children and two conspiracy counts. Pillich has said an aggravated murder conviction could bring life imprisonment without parole. The indictment is an accusation, not a finding of guilt, and the defendants entered not-guilty pleas at their Aug. 14 arraignments.
Questions about competency briefly created another track in the case. Rankin’s attorney requested an evaluation, citing mental-health concerns, and Keaney was also examined. Judge Christian Jenkins ruled Sept. 15 that both defendants were competent to stand trial, meaning they were found able to understand the proceedings and assist their attorneys. Evans was not ordered to undergo a competency evaluation. The decisions allowed the cases against Rankin and Keaney to move ahead without resolving any allegation about William’s death.
The physical condition of William’s body remains significant because prosecutors are trying to establish not only a homicide but an alleged course of conduct. Bruises of different ages may offer information about timing, while a fracture can raise questions about what caregivers observed and whether medical treatment was obtained. The cause of death identifies the injury that the coroner determined was fatal, but it does not by itself establish who caused it. That question must be resolved through the combined record of medical evidence, witness testimony, electronic communications and other proof admitted in court.
Investigators have also had to reconstruct a life that, according to one local report, was largely invisible to neighbors in the apartment building. Police said people in the building told investigators they did not know a child lived there. That circumstance does not prove any charge, but it helps explain why much of the case depends on evidence from inside the residence, medical examination and communications among the defendants rather than on neighbors who witnessed what prosecutors allege occurred.
The medical findings are therefore both powerful and limited. They document the condition in which William was found and establish the coroner’s conclusion about how he died, while leaving criminal responsibility for a court to determine. Evans, Rankin and Keaney remain accused rather than convicted, and their not-guilty pleas preserve disputes over who caused particular injuries, what each adult knew and whether the prosecution can prove the alleged conspiracies.
With competency questions resolved for Rankin and Keaney, the criminal cases remain active in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The next phases are expected to test how the coroner’s findings fit with the state’s electronic and investigative evidence and whether prosecutors can connect the documented injuries to each defendant beyond a reasonable doubt.
Author note: Last updated September 21, 2026.