‘This should never happen’; 2 Kentucky child deaths should be under investigation, instead they’re sitting in limbo

In the middle of a park, Serenity McKinney’s grandmother, Melody Roller, flipped through a binder she calls her “nightmare binder.” 

It details every part of the investigation into her granddaughter’s death, containing everything from calls to the coroner’s office to song choices for the young girl's funeral. They aren’t the kind of memories a grandmother looks back on fondly.

McKinney was three years old when she was killed at the hands of her caretakers. Police originally said she was four years old, but it wouldn't be until months later they learned the young girl never made it to her fourth birthday.  

McKinney's mother, Catherine McKinney, and her mother's boyfriend, Dakota Hill, are now in prison serving time for her death. 

Roller believes child protective services could have prevented Serenity's death.

McKinney’s case is spelled out in more than 100 documents kept by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS). 

According to her case file, a family member called the cabinet in June of 2021 with an allegation of physical abuse. She noticed dried blood on Serenity and when she asked what happened, Serenity told her that "Dakota grabbed her by ankles and slung her around and she was afraid. He then let her go and dropped her causing her to hit the floor.”

A social worker responded to that complaint by contacting Catherine McKinney and Dakota Hill, "but not Serenity then closed the case,” according to the records.

The file said Dakota Hill had a documented violent history including "choking and killing animals, choking his mother and choking an ex-girlfriend".

Roller said she didn’t know about that history when her granddaughter was living with him. Her son, McKinney’s biological father, was not in the picture. 

"I have a lot of guilt. I put a lot of weight on my shoulders because I should've known. I should've been there,” Roller said.

Another complaint was called in just one month later, in July 2021. That person, identified as a friend of family, said "they have not seen Serenity and have not been able to talk to her on the phone." 

A social worker labeled that as "does not meet CPS acceptance criteria" and took no further action, but we now know Serenity was likely already dead.

"I was furious. Because if CPS would have made sure that they made contact, regardless of the contact because you don't know about the time frame until after the fact. We would've known sooner,” Roller said.

It would be another six months before police were alerted to the situation. 

“The only reason they got involved was because my mother-in-law…filed a missing person on Serenity and [Catherine] at the time, because they couldn't get in touch with either," Roller recalled. "Well then the police got in contact with [Catherine] and then they couldn't find Serenity and so…then…you know the rest of the story."

The rest of Serenity's story is difficult to digest. According to the case file, during a jailhouse interview, Catherine McKinney described the murder of her own daughter. 

She told a case worker Dakota was mad at the three-year-old and "punched Serenity in the stomach."

She said Serenity seemed "very uncomfortable" in the days that followed and compared the child's stomach "to that of someone pregnant." 

Three days later, she said "Serenity started making noises," and called it "the death rattle."

After the child died, Catherine McKinney told the case worker Dakota Hill put her little body "in a plastic bag" and "put her in suitcase" with cat litter. Catherine said they took the suitcase to Skyview Road, an area where they smoked marijuana and Dakota dumped the young girl's body there. 

Police called Dakota and Catherine "stone cold killers".

Roller said she avoids the details of Serenity's death and tries to focus on a way forward. For much of the last few years that's been finding forgiveness.

"I'm trying to learn how to forgive," she said. "For something that is hard to forgive."

But another young girl's death two years later would catch her attention. 

"It was like flashbacks,” she said. "The drugs and the CPS was the two things that were similar. Because in Serenity's case CPS was called. They went and knocked on the door. They never saw Serenity.”

Seventy miles from where Serenity McKinney's body was found, another makeshift memorial marks another young child's death.

In June of this year, 8-month-old Miya Rudd was reported missing. The infant hadn't been seen in months and days later her body was found under a pile of debris, according to Kentucky State Police.

KSP Trooper Corey King described the police investigation as one that started by happenstance. 

"This is one of those cases that started out as a drug investigation for us as an agency but turned into so much more," he said.

State police detectives were investigating a drug operation traced back to a house in Reynolds Station, Kentucky, and the people who lived inside. As detectives dug deeper, a piece of information concerned them: an infant was supposedly living in the house filled with dangerous, deadly drugs.

Authorities were able to locate Miya's parents and grandfather inside an Owensboro hotel with tons of drugs, but the child was nowhere to be found.

Further conversations revealed the family was already on CPS radar. 

"Previous children had been removed from this house due to the inability of the caretakers but also the drugs that were involved,” King said.

Police also confirmed Miya was known to the state after an alarming test result raised red flags just days after she was born.

"Social services learned that the umbilical cord tested positive for methamphetamine about a week after her birth. And it was my understanding that social services had then, at that point, were working to remove this child and could not locate not only the child but the family as well,” King explained. 

It’s still unclear when or why her parents were able to leave the hospital with the child.

KSP couldn't confirm what the effort to find the child looked like, only confirming the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) never called them for help. The cabinet would not answer WHAS11's questions about how or if they tried to find the baby, citing a pending investigation.

State police officials said it was police who escalated the search for the infant, eventually making a grim discovery. 

“[The] lead investigator located a small infant very consistent to Miya Rudd, buried under a bunch of debris in the front part of the house,” King said.

Multiple family members were arrested on child neglect and drug charges. Miya Rudd's autopsy is still pending.

"I hope that the ones that fail these babies are held accountable,” Serenity McKinney’s grandmother, Melody Roller, said. "Accountability is a big thing."

Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball said there were "all kinds of red flags" when shown the details of Serenity McKinney's death.

"What is going on here? This should never happen. This should never, never happen," she said. "Especially when social workers are actively involved in the situation. It's not like no one knew this. People were actively alerted in these situations." 

Ball said she was already aware of the details of Miya Rudd case but was left with a lot of questions.

“Were social workers regularly going out there? [Miya's] siblings were removed, why wasn't this child removed?" Ball said. "I thought this is exactly the kind of situation that the Ombudsman’s Office is supposed to prevent.”

Accountability and answers in these deaths could start in the Kentucky Auditor’s Office, where there is an office for oversight that's supposed to identify problematic patterns or practices in CPS investigations. It’s called the Office of the Ombudsman. 

But right now, that office is sitting in limbo.

"There's a database and that database is what the Ombudsman always uses to look at whatever the situation is, to investigate, to find out if social workers are doing what they're supposed to, to find out if they are going out and checking on these children. And that database is called iTwist. It has always been used by the Ombudsman staff, you really can't investigate unless you have access to this database,” Ball said. “The cabinet has taken the position that they're not allowing us to have access to that database anymore."

Ball said the cabinet has been holding the records hostage since the Office of the Ombudsman moved from under the cabinet itself to the auditor's office. That move was prompted by Kentucky lawmakers, who passed the law in 2023.

"[Lawmakers] looked at the structure and said it really doesn't make sense to have that office housed at CHFS because it's about accountability, it's about investigations, it's about corrective actions and if you are housed in the office," she said. "There's just a conflict there, you're not really an outsider that can look at things independently."

The move went into effect in July of this year. Ball hired an Ombudsman, who then hired staff members. They have offices in the same building as the auditor, but they are not currently investigating anything.

"We're right now at an impasse. We're pushing really, really hard to get some kind of resolution because the problem is as long as we are at this impasse the public is not being served,” Ball said.

With more than a year to work out the kinks, Ball said her office shouldn't still be waiting. 

"I am very eager to make sure everything is in line, that this will not happen again," she added.

Ball said she need access to the iTwist database and filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court earlier this week asking a judge to force CHFS to give them access to the full database.

"I do think there are problems. We've already laid out red flags, we've already laid out horrible results that we know occurred," she explained. "So, I need to have more info and I need to be able to look into this and then we can make some changes." 

Those changes would come too late to save Serenity or Miya, but Ball hopes it can prevent yet another tragic child death.

The Cabinet maintains a different Kentucky law prevents them from providing full access to the iTwist database. 

Officials with CHFS declined WHAS11's request to interview for this story but provided this statement:

“The Governor supports changing the law in the next legislative session to provide full access. In the meantime, the administration has tried to work with the Auditor’s Office to provide them with the maximum access allowed under the current law, but they have refused. On numerous occasions the cabinet believed a resolution had been reached, only to find the Auditor’s Office had changed its position. Monday’s action shows the Auditor would rather play politics than work with the cabinet on a solution – one that meets the requirements set forth by the General Assembly.”

The Cabinet also declined to answer questions about the Serenity McKinney or Miya Rudd case, but provided the following statement:

“The administration works tirelessly to prevent child abuse and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children in the commonwealth. The murder of Serenity McKinney was a tragedy. The cabinet fully cooperated with law enforcement in their investigation of this case and also worked with the Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Committee on their review of this matter, you can learn more here. Due to the ongoing investigation, we are prohibited from discussing the case of Miya Rudd at this time. You may review the child fatality statute here.“

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