Kansas – A Kansas woman was sentenced to two hundred and fifteen months in prison after pleading no contest earlier this year to second-degree murder, chiId abuse, making faIse information and theft by weIfare fraud in the death of her chiId, 6-year-old Kenedy. Prosecutors and the judge described the plea and sentence as the resolution of a case that began when human remains were discovered at the family home last year and investigators established the child likely died years earlier.

Law enforcement began the investigation in Sept. last year after officers went to the Kansas home on a welfare and safety check. During that initial response police said the defendant, 50-year-old C. Schorer, had threatened self-harm; officers then learned information that led them to search the property more closely. Investigators used equipment to clear heavy vegetation, brought in cadaver dogs and dug in the yard; they ultimately recovered human remains that were later identified as the child who had been adopted by the woman and her husband. Kansas authorities have said the child’s death likely occurred in late 2020, and the county coroner classified the manner of death as a homicide.

As the investigation unfolded, detectives compiled statements from both parents, from other children in the home and from records obtained through child welfare and medical channels. According to local reporting and the probable cause affidavit, the woman told officers at the time she had been in crisis. After reviewing the full investigative file, police say she and her husband had repeatedly given false statements about the child’s whereabouts, including claims that she was in a hospital. Interviews with the their other children and with caseworkers, investigators said, documented a pattern of severe neglect and abuse that became part of the basis for the charges filed against the couple.

According to investigators and court filings, one of the children told Kansas authorities that the victim was forced into a small reinforced cardboard storage container as punishment for moving in her sleep. The mother then placed bIankets and a small crib on top of it to keep her in place, which blocked airflow and caused suffocation. The child recalled hearing a sibling make a noise, prompting the mother to return and ask if the girl was still making sounds. When she opened it later, the child fell out and was blue and unresponsive.

The mother attempted CPR and even a cold shower, but the girl had already died. The body was later transported and buried in a shallow grave in the backyard. Investigators noted that the surviving children witnessed parts of these events, and their statements, along with forensic evidence, were critical in building the case that led to the conviction. Initially, the mother claimed that another child had placed the victim in the storage container, suggesting she was not directly responsible for putting her there. She told investigators that she discovered the child unresponsive inside the container and then attempted CPR and other measures before eventually burying the body.