Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom & Her Lovers Accused of Torturing Boy Before Grisly Death

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Police found the body of William Ellis-Evans, 7, in a closet inside a home in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday, August 6, 2026. William was autistic and had ADHD. Police said he was being raised by his mother, Kaitlin Evans, 38, and her polyamorous lovers, Kirby Rankin, 33, and Nessa Keaney, 23. All three are charged with child endangering and murder in William's death. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the details of the case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests:Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco https://x.com/sammarcocoronerMark Weaver https://x.com/MarkRWeaverCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Van DinhGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I mean, just seeing a crumpled little body in the back of the closet was just really hard. A seven-year-old boy with disabilities, tortured, and murdered. His mother is in jail, along with the adults who were supposed to be co-parenting little William Evans-Ellis. I'll go through the horrific details, the strange dynamic inside the house, and the violence the boy observed months before he died. I'm Ann Janette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. William Evans Ellis was an adorable seven-year-old little boy. He was loved by his grandparents, his biological father, and other family members. They absolutely adored him. Tragically, William's family will never be able to spend time with him again. They will never get to hug him or see his sweet smile because his life was stolen from him. Police say by three people who were supposed to protect him. Three people, detectives say, who were supposed to be. acting as William's so-called co-parents. William was only seven. But what police say the sweet

boy who was autistic and had ADHD went through is so horrific and beyond the pale. A detective with the Cincinnati Police Department says William was tortured in the weeks before he died. And then, in this home in a Cincinnati neighborhood called Oakley, William was found bound with duct tape in a closet. Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Samarko says William had been dead for at least a day when he was found in that closet. Dr. Samarko is going to join me to discuss the autopsy results. William was just a seven-year-old boy who should be playing with toys and spending time riding his bike and getting ready for the school year.

William was killed for absolutely no reason at all. What reason could there be? This entire sixth story began on Thursday, August 6th, around 1 p.m. A woman walked into a medical facility called Mercy Health. She was barefoot and made a startling claim. Here's the 911 call. So, 9-1-1, what's the address of your emergency? 911, what's the address to your emergency, please?

Road, Brookwood Emergency Department. Mercy, Brookwood, your name is on her? Yes. We have somebody that came in and kind of just dropped herself on the floor. She's barefoot. She's saying that her partner is trying to kill her. That they took her son. Madison Road.

I do. I'm not sure if she's in danger or it's a psychmerch. Madison. Who took her son? Who? Who? Her son? Her son is the name.

She gave me? She is taken by like JFS. No, she's saying that he's hiding him up in the attic apartment too. Do apartments have addicts? The apartments have addicts? Okay. I get a Norwood officer over. You guys are in the ER?

Yeah, I'm the charge nurse of the emergency department, and she is sitting on the floor rocking back and forth and barefoot. All right, we got him on the way. All right, thank you. Police officers went to a duplex on Madison Road where the woman claimed to live. They went to the second floor unit where they uncovered a horrific scene. Little William Evans Ellis was dead. He was in a closet, a seven-year-old boy.

Officers found a total of three adults who lived in that unit. William's mom, Caitlin Evans, and her partners, Nisa Kenny and Kirby Rankin. Nisa Kenny and Kirby Rankin are trans women. They were assigned male at birth, but identify as women. And they were living in a polyamorous relationship with William's biological father, a trans woman, apparently who was removed from this polycule some time ago. Evans, Kenny, and Rankin were all taken into custody and charged with murder and child endangering. They're accused of causing William's death or failing to act to prevent him. from being injured or killed. All three were booked into the Hamilton County Justice Center.

You can see they're wearing white suits. Their clothes were seized as evidence, so detectives gave them these to wear so they could be transported to the jail wearing something. Each went through the X-ray machine to ensure they didn't have anything hidden in a body cavity, that's standard procedure. Then they were searched at the wall, patted down, before they would be fitted with a yellow jail jumpsuit. The next morning, each appeared in court. A Cincinnati police detective talked about how he'd never seen something this bad in his 20 years. Here's a clip from Fox 19 in Cincinnati. For the lack of a better term, some water torture involved. We believe the victim was choked underwater, held underwater for a long period of time. There was some burn torture involved

and the victim was was bound with duct taped in positions that immobilized. William's biological father, a trans woman, spoke at the court appearance. Records show she is married to William's mother. Take care for him. They kept him from me for the past nine months. All three were ordered held on a $1.1 million bond. So I want to bring in Dr. Lakshmi Samarko. She is the coroner in Hamilton County, Ohio, and the pathologists at her office performed the autopsy on Little William.

Dr. Samarko, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, Ingen. Talk to us a little bit about Williams' cause of death, if you would. It's a blood force trauma to the head, and he had bleeding and swelling of the brain. Do you know at this point what caused those injuries? Well, I think Cincinnati police has collected some evidence, some of which may be a murder weapon. We're going to take a look at what they've collected and see if any of those items would match the entries that we're seeing. But at this point, we know that some of the brewers.

cruising on his skin is consistent with being struck. The Cincinnati police detective who was present at the court appearances the other day said that basically this child, this poor child was tortured, that there was evidence of water torture. They believed that this went on for a couple of weeks. Did the autopsy reveal anything to you all about that? We're still looking at the lungs carefully. some of what we saw originally may just be, you know, part of the death process.

And so we're looking at the lungs a little more carefully. We're still doing some testing on some of the bruising and things. So we're not complete yet. We only have preliminary findings. Dr. Samarko, you were on scene that day, last Thursday, when police arrived at the home and they found William in the closet. Tell me a little bit about what happened when you went into that home. Well, in the 14 plus years, I've been in office, I've, I dread the child cases.

I mean, being a mom and having had kids that age, I mean, it's, I think, and for my investigators as well, it's one of the hardest things that we have to do. When I got that phone call, I was actually just remembering Marcus Faisel from, you know, 20 years before. And I think it was the day before was his 20 years since his death. But it just sounded, I don't know, so similar. So there were just too many things that were reported to us at that point. and I was afraid that this was a copycat situation. And, you know, seven.

And you know what you're walking into. They just told you what you're walking into. But it still doesn't prepare you for the impact. And I was the one, you know, we got up to the third floor, and these CIS investigators were there, and my investigator was there. One of the homicide detectives was there. and, you know, I was the one that opened the closet door,

and I literally just froze for several minutes, I think. And everybody was quiet. And then finally my investigator said, you okay, Doc? And I said, I don't know if I'll ever be okay, but I'm definitely not okay with this. And, you know, and it was just, I don't know. I mean, just seeing a crumpled little body in the back of the closet was just really hard.

I am sure that I just can't even imagine what that poor child went through. Were those defendants, I'm assuming, already out of the house by the time? Yeah, the house was the house was empty when we got there, except for him. You had mentioned, too, in your press conference that there were, you know, there was like a playroom or something with Legos. Yeah. There were two rooms. There were two bedrooms and like a little playroom up on that third floor. and that playroom was filled with Legos. And I mean, all sorts of sets and really cool Legos. And then the other bedroom had like a tent-like setup, you know, a hammock thing and a bunch more Legos and Lego sets.

And it just looked like he was an indulged little boy. I mean, it was, yeah, I mean, it looked like a little boy's dream player. really so it's so shocking to hear you describe a dream playroom for a little boy we have neighbors across the street saying they had no idea a child even live there yeah and yet little william is found just horrifically murdered and abused in a closet bound with duct tape it doesn't comport yeah i know and that was you know the the the contradictions uh in what we were seeing and what we're experiencing. But, yeah, I mean, if you saw that room without him in there, you would think, oh, wow, you know,

a little kid must live here who's spoiled and he gets all these toys and must really be into Legos. And, you know, what a cool room. But, yeah. Where does your investigation go from here? We know the toxicology usually takes several weeks. It does. It does. And we, you know, in cases like this particular, you know, we throw everything we have in the way of investigative and evidence processing ability.

So, you know, toxicology, DNA, trace evidence, everybody's involved. Do you know who inflicted the injuries to William? Do not. I do not. I know that CPD arrested three people, but I don't know anything about them. and never seen them. So. Yeah. Well, we're going to keep an eye on it. And we hope you and your investigators, you know, process this as best you can.

It's horrific. Thank you so much, Dr. Samarko, for coming on. Thanks, Antoin. Now, in the background of all of this is an incident back in January, 2026 in a grocery store parking lot. Kirby Rankin was charged with assaulting a woman, punching her in the face. And William was there when it happened. Rankin also pulled a gun that day. If you look closely here, you can see it in her right hand.

Caitlin Evans is standing nearby. Lance Bunnell says his wife was driving through the parking lot of jungle gyms to go shopping. You can see in the right hand corner of your screen that the trio appears with William in tow. Kirby is pushing the cart wearing a blue coat. I spoke with Lance Bunnell. He didn't want his face shown. So my wife on Sunday decided to go shopping at Jungle Gems on a perfectly clear day. in the middle of the daytime. She's pulling into a parking lot. She actually passes three people in the parking lot. Drives like pass them. It's not an issue. She starts backing up and she notices that one person is making gestures at her and she's not sure what it is. So she pauses her drive, you know, actually stops her car thinking that something's behind her and they're trying to warn her.

So she looks, there's nothing behind her, she continues, she backs up. So she parks her vehicle, she exits her vehicle and those people that she had passed are now a couple cars down from her in when she exited the car to go to the front of the store and she walked past them while she was walking past the one that was jesting at her said something and she's like hey what's going on is there something wrong with my vehicle or what and then i guess he just broke down in a tirade at her and she really didn't understand what is even talking about so after a conversation she disengages and says well i don't know what you're talking about you know i'm not sure and she walks away. Well, the individual later found out to be Kirby Rankin follows her and then re-engages

with her. So she hears him coming because he's storming up behind her, you know, yelling at her. So she turns around and talks to him again. All of a sudden, he gets, you know, more angry and then shoves her violently. During the shove, he actually tore her meniscus in her knee. And when that happened, obviously, she collects herself and says, hey, you know, what are you shoving me for? what's going on. Actually, prior to that, when she was walking away from him, he even said that he was going to kill her, shoot her and kill her. And she's like, for what?

You know, anyway, so he shoves her after threatening to shoot her, and she regains her composure. She turns back to him. And she's like, you know, you can't shove me. And then he calls off and hits her in the face. When he hit her in the face, obviously she's seeing stars at that point. You know what's going on. He walks away. She tells him, I'm getting your license plate.

and he says, no, you're not going to take any pictures of me, then pulls out a gun from his purse and loads around. During that time period, a good Samaritan and his wife were sitting in a car close by and they saw the whole interaction. Kirby Rankin pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts and is set to be sentenced on that case in September. The Bunnels are absolutely furious with how this case was handled. They believe Rankin should have been charged with felonies.

And had she been, maybe William wouldn't have been around her. Several photos of Kirby Rankin were taken when she was booked into the jail. She is trans, but the jail lists her and Nisa Kenny as males. Kirby Rankin has tattoos on her arm that read, This machine kills fascists. So I want to bring in Mark Weaver. He works as a prosecutor in the state of Ohio as a special prosecutor. He's also a former Deputy Ohio Attorney General also sits as a judge.

Mark, thanks so much for coming on. This case has my blood boiling. This little boy is adorable, was adorable, beautiful child, and now he has been, the police say, tortured to death. Yeah, I've been prosecuting crimes against children for 25 years, and this is truly, truly getting to me. I've seen a lot of horrible things. I've worked on death penalty cases, crimes against infants,

but this little boy did not deserve this fate, obviously. and he was living in a home of horrors. This was going on, apparently, it sounds like, from what we've heard in court for weeks. We now have a 911 call where somebody walks into Mercy Health, a short distance away over on Edwards Road. If you're familiar with the area, like here's Madison Road, and then you walk up, and Edwards Road is kind of over here, and you go down. and she comes in barefoot and says like he took my child or she you know and he says he's going to kill me cops go over there and they find little william duct taped in a closet the cop said in court

the detective said there was evidence of water torture this poor child had been beaten had been burned what in the heck why did somebody in that house not put their first foot down and literally take that child and run out of the house and call 911 the first time somebody laid a hand on that child it makes zero sense to me where where do I start thank goodness Ohio has the death penalty it's not been used in a while but I'm hopeful it will be used again and this is a death penalty eligible case because it's explained to us why that's a death penalty eligible in Ohio we have murder and we have aggravated murder and so when to elevate it from murder to aggravated murder, which is eligible for the death penalty.

There has to be a compounding factor like the torture of a child would be one of them. And so I'm hopeful. Now the Hamilton County prosecutor has changed hands over the last couple of years and they've got a different perspective than past Hamilton County prosecutors. That's the county surrounding Cincinnati. And the judges down there perhaps are not as tough on crime as they were in the past. So if this had happened in a different county, I'd have a greater confidence that we would see the death penalty brought. So I'm hopeful that they will bring the death penalty in this case because it certainly deserves it. But there were numerous things gone wrong here. Nobody should ever duct tape the hands of a child.

That's child endangering. That's a felony. Nobody should ever lock children in closets. That's also a child endangering. Of course, children who are acting up need appropriate discipline. and nobody argues with that. None of this is that. And all three of these people need to be convicted

for either what they did or what they stood by and allowed to happen. William is under the age of 13. So that is one of the factors at play when it comes to an aggravating factor with regard to seeking the death penalty, if I'm not mistaken in the state of Ohio. Also, William, according to family members,

is autistic and has ADHD. ADHD, a lot of people may not be aware, is a disability covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the autism really is, you know, a factor here that should be taken into consideration. A beautiful child, I've seen videos of him on social media, he's just painting. There's no excuse, zero excuse, zero excuse,

zero-zero excuse for what went on with this child. Yeah, this is why we have the death penalty. There's numerous ways to get there. I hope the prosecutor down there will do that. But this was not a normal situation that this child was living in. I've said this before in other interviews and have known this for years. The statistics show us that when an unrelated male is brought into the house with a child, that that child is statistically much more likely to be abused,

sometimes sexual abuse, sometimes violently killed in this case. And we have the jail records indicate these were two men living with the biological mother of this child in a very odd, troubling, weird arrangement that put this boy at risk and now he's dead. You are right. Both the jail and the court records identify Kirby, Rankin, and Nessette. as men. It appears potentially they were living as women. This has been described as a co-parenting situation with bio mom Caitlin Evans. I have come to learn and we've seen in court that the biological father of William who appeared at court as a victim in

this case said you kept me away from him over the last nine months based on lies. So there's some unpacking to do here and some digging to do here because Bio Dad, who also appears to potentially, I don't know for sure, but appears to be maybe trans, is saying, you kept me away from my child and you did it based on lies.

There is something in the background here that is going to come out, that is going to be very ugly. There's clearly a lot of mental illness and mental health challenges in this situation. And this little boy had no control over the family he was born into. And he looks to the grown-ups who live with him to protect him. Number one, being the biological mother if she's in the home.

And everybody failed this child. And there's not only going to be these criminal, prosecutions, but it's going to be important to find out what the children's services workers knew about the situation, whether there were any reports. The neighbors apparently say they didn't even know there was a child in the house. That's another big giveaway that something is very wrong, because any neighbor is paying attention knows when there's children next door. Yeah, and the neighbors didn't know. They had no idea there were kids living, a child living there. I actually went out to this house over the weekend. There's a makeshift memorial.

taking shape there you know with a balloon some flowers candles that happens in these situations the neighbor downstairs put up a sign on the front door that said we were not involved in this please we did not do anything wrong don't knock on our door so you know you know press people media people like me have been going up and knocking and trying to get information but with what has gone on here I mean you I mean this is a duplex top level lower level I mean I mean I who knows how this was going on and unfolding, but I have to think that poor child was making noise.

It's very possible nobody heard it from the outside or the downstairs. But my God, you know, you have family members telling WLWT that they saw William recently and he had some type of injury like a bruise. They were kept away. I mean, these are all red flags. Like if you're a grandparent and you're not being allowed to see your grandchild, you know, when you did have regular access. and your daughter is living with people, I'm like, that may be, you know, kind of unsavory or whatever.

I mean, good God, do something. Yeah, this is, you mentioned red flags. This was a whole flag store of red flags. And everyone watching should know that when you see one flag that indicates maybe a child's at risk, that's when you call the child welfare authorities. If it's nothing, the experts at Children's Services will know that it's nothing. If it was a proper discipline, a kid who purposely broke something and is being defiant and maybe he got spanked, that's permitted under the law. And child service workers know that.

So you are helping a child when you see a red flag, you can make the tip anonymous, alert the people who are experts in child abuse to go check it out. Or call the cops. That's where you typically call. You call 911 and then the police make a referral over to children's services. and you don't have to give your name. Obviously, neighbors aren't going to get crossways with other neighbors. But, you know, the old, if you see something, say something applies doubly when it comes to small children who have no way to defend themselves.

Disgusting. There's also another thing going on here, Mark, back in January. Kirby, Rankin, was accused of pulling a gun on people at Jungle Jems, which is like a popular grocery in the greater Cincinnati area. There's a couple locations accused of pulling a gun on somebody, punching a woman in the face, assaulting her. And William was apparently this little beautiful child, William was with them when this happened.

And William was not removed. You know, this woman was seriously injured, clocked in the face by Kirby Rankin. And so I'm just like, There are failures all over the board here. Like a child should not be with somebody who's toting guns around and pulling them on people in parking lots and punching them in the face. Sure.

As a prosecutor and as a part-time acting judge, I've read thousands of criminal histories. And after a while, you get to know who's who and what's what. That history tells me this is a very disturbed, violent person. Any one of those crimes is enough to keep them out of the house of a child. This is what family courts are supposed to do during divorces. I don't know about the biological father. I don't know what his situation is.

But if neither the mother nor the biological father is a suitable parent, that's why we have a foster system. There are ways to protect children. And it sounds like most of them or all of them were not used in this case. No doubt. And, you know, the paternal grandparents are so upset. You know, they're saying, do not donate to the GoFundMe set up. by Caitlin Evans family. You're basically funding a murderer. And she is saying, we will take care of the funeral expenses. We have it handled. His name is not William Evans. It's William Ellis,

because that's their last name. That was the last name he was given. So, Mark, there's a lot that we're going to learn about this situation and what happened with William in the months and the last year leading up to his horrific murder. We do need to learn more. And I'd like to learn more about those grandparents, but just that offer alone tells me that they are probably a better place for him to have been. Now, there's the biblical story about when King Solomon is approached by two women who are both saying that a baby belongs to them. And King Solomon, very wise, takes out a sword and says, well, how about if I cut the baby in half, and then you can each get one half? And one woman says, I'd rather the other woman have than you do that. And this is a way of knowing

which one is the real mother. It shows us who the child should be with. And a grandparent who would say, we'll step forward. You don't need to give us money. We'll bury this child. It tells me that perhaps there was somebody in this child's life who might have been willing to look out for him. And what a shame that he was not able to be in their care. Absolutely a shame.

We're going to keep a close eye on this one. It's horrific. Mark Weaver, thank you so much. Appreciate you joining me. Yes. Thank you. The families of William are grieving. On a GoFumme page, William's maternal aunt wrote, William Michael Evans was a beloved little boy whose life was taken far too soon, and his family is now facing a heartbreak. No family should ever have to endure. Right now, the focus is on surrounding William's loved ones with compassion as they grieve this unimaginable loss and begin the painful process of honoring his memory. William was deeply loved by so many, especially his grandparents, Mike and Tina, affectionately known as Papa. and Nana, as well as his aunt Allison, who he called Aunt Alley and her golden-doodle, Louis.

Now, there definitely appears to be a rift between the grandparents in this case. William's paternal grandmother wrote on Facebook, William Ellis, my grandson, was brutally murdered. We have been absolutely devastated and have not had the bandwidth to make any arrangements yet. I will let you know when that happens. A dear family member told me there's a fund. We have everything covered. Thank you.

Please do not fund his murderer. Prayers are greatly appreciated. So this case should be going to grand jury at some point soon. We will keep an eye on it and let you know what happens. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.