A newly released 911 call reveals why police were called to an Oakley apartment where they found a 7-year-old boy dead in a closet.
A woman who identified herself as the boy’s mother walked into the emergency room at Mercy Health Rookwood barefoot and dropped on the floor just before 1 p.m. Aug. 6, a supervisor told 911 in a recording obtained by The Enquirer.
The supervisor told 911 the woman kept saying her partner was trying to kill her and took her son. The supervisor said she was unsure whether the woman was in danger or if it was a psychiatric emergency.
The woman identified the partner who took her son as Kirby Rankin, one of three charged with murder in the boy’s death.
The 911 dispatcher sent a Norwood officer to the emergency room and a Cincinnati police officer to an apartment on the 2800 block of Madison Road. There, officers found Williams Evans dead, bound with duct tape in a closet.
Kaitlin Evans, 38, was later identified by police as the boy’s biological mother. It is unclear if Evans is the same woman who walked into the emergency room.
Prosecutors said in court Aug. 7 that Evans, Rankin and another person, Nessa Keaney, all lived together in the apartment and acted as co-parents for William.
Kyle Smith, Cincinnati police detective, said there was evidence of beatings and burns on William’s body. He said there was also evidence of the child being choked while held under water, which Smith called “water torture.”
Rankin had violent outburst at Fairfield Jungle Jim’s
Rankin recently pleaded guilty after an outburst in the parking lot of Jungle Jim’s International Market in January, according to Fairfield Municipal Court records.
Police said Rankin threatened a woman who had almost hit their child with their car, according to Enquirer media partner Fox 19.
While the woman Rankin threatened was trying to walk away, security camera footage caught Rankin push her and punch her in the face.
When a bystander and other witnesses stepped in to deescalate the fight, police said Rankin pulled a Springfield XD .40 pistol from their purse, chambered a round and pointed it at one of the bystanders, warning him to leave.
The woman Rankin punched had three fractured teeth, a torn meniscus, neck strain and other injuries, she told Fox 19.
During their arraignment for murder last week, Rankin’s lawyer Anna Mallory said they had a history of mental illness and asked that their competency be evaluated.
Rankin, Evans and Keaney all remain in custody at the Hamilton County Justice Center on $1.1 million bonds, according to jail records.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Mom claimed partner kidnapped Oakley child later found dead of abuse
Reporting by David Ferrara, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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By David Ferrara, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
