The medics who tried to save 5-year-old Kinsleigh Welty’s life knew their efforts were futile, a Marion County jury heard on June 22.
“We were beating up a dead baby,” testified James Lucas, a deputy chief with the Decatur Township Fire Department. “I didn’t want to do it anymore.”
That April 9, 2024, call was unlike any other Lucas had in his career, he said. Kinsleigh’s mother, Toni McClure, told first responders that her daughter had collapsed after playing outside and complaining of a headache.
But the child who lay unresponsive in her soiled Princess Jasmine pajamas was emaciated, filthy and covered in lice. Lucas testified that rigor mortis had begun to set in.
“It didn’t add up for just a headache,” Lucas said.
Lucas was one of the first witnesses the state called in its trial against McClure, who stands accused of confining her little girl to a feces-covered closet until she died of starvation and dehydration. Kinsleigh weighed only 21 pounds at autopsy.
McClure faces charges of murder, criminal confinement resulting in serious bodily injury and battery on a person younger than 14 years old.
While her defense team concedes that McClure is a “terrible mother,” she is not a murderer, they argue. Kinsleigh had had trouble eating early in life, defense attorney Deana Martin told the jury during opening statements, and at one point relied on a feeding tube.
In addition, Kinsleigh had behavioral issues, Martin said, and McClure would put the girl in the closet when she acted out. McClure’s defense team contends that she didn’t mean to kill Kinsleigh.
Prosecutors say, however, that McClure systematically and deliberately starved her daughter. During the first day of trial, state’s witnesses testified about the early stages of the investigation.
Hours after Kinsleigh was pronounced dead, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers searched the home that McClure shared with her then-boyfriend, Ryan Smith.
IMPD Detective Jamie Davis said that the house appeared clean. But then investigators moved a dresser in the back bedroom, unblocking a closet door.
“Tell us about the closet,” Prosecutor Anne Frangos said. Davis began to cry.
“When you first open the door it hit…the overwhelming smell of feces, urine, disgust,” Davis said.
Waste was everywhere – beneath the door handles, caked into the carpet, splashed onto the walls. On the floor were a few empty bottles of Ensure, a stale peanut butter sandwich, a Dr Pepper can, an empty water bottle and some soiled garments.
When crime scene technician Angelica Leon collected a ballerina-themed shirt and pant set from the closet for processing, she said, she found a hot dog bun filled with feces beneath it. Her photographs of the kitchen showed that it was well-stocked.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Amanda Paul said that the condition of Kinsleigh’s body was “shocking.”
In her report, she described the girl as “cachectic” – a term typically reserved for late-stage cancer patients.
Autopsy photos showed a waxen, skeleton of a girl with protruding bones. Her hair was sparse and short, her scalp scabbed and flaky. She was missing multiple teeth, but no adult teeth were growing in behind them. The total volume of her stomach contents reached 5 milliliters.
Paul held up the 20-ounce plastic water bottle she was drinking from as she testified.
“This is 591 (milliliters),” Paul said.
As deputy prosecutor Emily White flipped through the photos of Kinsleigh’s body, one juror held his reddened face in his hands. Two others wiped away tears.
By the time Martin began cross-examining Paul, McClure was dabbing her face with a tissue, too.
Paul said that she couldn’t provide an exact time of death, and she couldn’t say exactly how long it took for Kinsleigh to reach that state. But the girl must have gone hungry for a prolonged time, she said.
“She didn’t not have her PB+J and look like that the next day,” Paul said.
McClure’s defense attorney asked if it was possible for Kinsleigh’s condition to come from a chronic disease.
Possible, Paul said, but she found no evidence that Kinsleigh had such an illness.
Of the three people charged in connection with Kinsleigh’s death, McClure is the only defendant who’s opted to take her case to trial. In December 2025, Smith and McClure’s mother, Tammy Halsey, both pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in death. Each was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and both will testify against McClure this week.
Testimony continues at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23. The state plans to call eight witnesses, including Smith. The prosecution team also told the judge that they plan to bring in several witnesses from the Department of Child Services. Kinsleigh’s father and paternal grandfather are both suing the agency over its failure to intervene.
The prosecution’s case will likely continue until next Monday, June 29. Closing statements could come as early as Tuesday, June 30.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Trial begins for mother accused of murder in daughter’s starvation
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
