One year later and still no answers

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To those who think time heals all wounds…Jill Humphries, 39, of Versailles has another story. “It hurts as much today as it did last year,” she told The Versailles Republican, speaking of the horrific tragedy that claimed the life of her three-year-old, Kenna on October 19, 2023.
Humphries said she wants everyone to know her child was so much more than a “tragic accident.” She wants people to know Kenna was a light, her shining angel and she’s forever gone.

The grieving mother noted that she is full of regret and rage. Humphries says she doesn’t believe Kenna got justice at any angle. She said she felt like she left her in responsible hands, but the babysitter, who was 17 years old and a family member, was busy on her phone when Kenna went missing. She had “fallen” down an open septic system. Paperwork from the autopsy report was completed by Board Certified Forensic Pathologist, Maxwell Rollins, M.D. and read, “cause of death is due to hydrogen sulfide due to vitiated atmosphere. Cause of death is accident…final autopsy report note: Although the autopsy and toxicology prove that she was alive in the septic tank for some unknown period of time, the manner of her entry into the tank is uncertain. The lack of physical injury to her body and the odd narrative of the caretaker remain suspicious to the JCCO. Given her mother assures us that she was a good swimmer, it seems that she should have been able to remain afloat for quite some time and in that time, she should have incurred some physical injury.”

That leads Humphries to believe there was something more than a tragic accident. She is convinced that the death of her child was “swept under the rug” by involved authorities. She said she is full of hate for those who she feels have failed her and her precious daughter, Kenna.

She had left Kenna with a family member to go to work and felt she had done the right thing. She never dreamed that Kenna would be in fatal danger.

Humphries says she had endured a lot in her lifetime and said she wasn’t the best mother to her older children, a boy and a girl. “I know I didn’t do things like I should have,” she commented. “I thought Kenna was my chance to do things right.”

Kenna’s father, Dakota Wilson died in January of 2023 of an overdose. Humphries said she was still reeling from that when she got the phone call to come home from work on October 19, 2023, and found that Kenna was gone. Then just two days later her sister, Heather, had a heart attack and died. “When the laundromat burned in Versailles, my clothes were in the dryer,” she said as tears fell down her cheeks. “Why?”

A lot of questions about who did what and why remain with Humphries. Most of all, she is angry because she feels let down by so many. “Where was Kenna’s ribbons? Her justice?” she cried.

In the October 24, 2023, issue of the Osgood Journal, the headline read, “Tragic accident claims life of 3-year-old.” The front-page story was taken from reports that said this was a “tragic accident” and Kenna had passed away after being taken to Norton King’s Daughters’ Hospital in Madison by Ripley County EMS.

An assessment of alleged child abuse or neglect report has been completed by the Department of Child Services with their conclusion being that neglect due to lack of supervision on the part of the babysitter was a factor. However, the report also states that death due to neglect is unsubstantiated for the babysitter. The assessment was assigned to Todd Click on October 20, 2023 and then reassigned to Shaye Fisbeck on February 28, 2024.

Click resigned from his position with DCS and has been charged with falsifying DCS assessment records. (Although this is not one of the cases he is accused of forging names on, nor saying he went to the homes, only to find out he did not. This story was published in the Osgood Journal, October 8, 2024, issue.)

Prosecutor Ric Hertel says his office doesn’t have anything to file since they didn’t have the ability to charge and prove a case against the babysitter.

Humphries remains adamant that something should have been done. She isn’t satisfied with the answers she has gotten from authorities and says she remains sure that her daughter did not get the justice she deserved.