True Crime with Rachel Shannon
THE MOST HORRIFIC MURDER: She Was Locked in a Closet Covered in Feces and STARVED to Death
Tue, 22 Apr 2025
In the darkest corners of neglect, a tragedy unfolded that shook the very foundation of our belief in humanity's compassion. The heartbreaking story of 5-year-old Kinsleigh Welty reveals the harrowing reality of child abuse and systemic failure, leaving the community questioning how innocence can be met with such cruelty. Join me as we honor Kinsley's memory, delve into the details of this devastating case, and call for change to protect the most vulnerable among us. Go watch my other episodes on Spotify: The Disturbing Case of Stephanie ParzeShe Tried to Warn Them About her Son, Then he was MURDERED. THE CASE OF GUNNAR SCHUMACHER7 Year old’s Strange Death Reveals Mom’s DISGUSTING Secret: Did She Starve her for Attention?!
Chapter 1: What tragic circumstances surrounded Kinsleigh Welty's life?
All children deserve to be in a home where they will be loved, cared for, and have all of their basic needs met. They deserve to live in a clean, safe environment where they will be free from harm and protected from any dangers that come their way. But tragically, not every child is afforded that right.
Some children are born to parents who not only don't care about them, but who want to see them suffer. Parents who will go out of their way to make sure that their children are in pain and torment. It's so tragic, but what's even worse is when these parents are investigated, the red flags are waving in the faces of DCFS workers, yet nothing is done. That is what happened in this case.
Five-year-old little Kinsley Welty was born into a dirty, disgusting home with parents who neglected her. And even when workers with the Department of Child and Family Services saw the horrific living conditions, nothing was done. Kinsley's mother was allowed to continue her abuse and neglect until her little body just couldn't take it anymore. This is the story of Kinsley Welty.
Kinsley was born on December 30th, 2018 to parents Tony McClure and Bradley Welty in Mooresville, Indiana. She also had five siblings, Jordan, Jaden, Jordine, Bradley, and Philly. Those who knew little Kinsley described that she was loving, caring, and sweet towards everyone in her life.
She went out of her way to make sure that everyone around her was happy and she just wanted to make others laugh. She loved causing little bits of mischief, taking her dad's hat off as a little joke. She also loved singing You Need to Calm Down by Taylor Swift with her grandparents. Her favorite shows were Paw Patrol and Bubble Guppies, and she loved playing dress-up and getting her hair done.
She was your typical girly, sweet, five-year-old little baby. However, Kinsley's life was incredibly rough from the moment she was born. When Kinsley was first born, she lived with her mother and father, but according to family members, from the literal day Kinsley was born, her mother abused and neglected her.
When she was three weeks old, family members reported that Kinsley appeared to be malnourished. she straight up wasn't being fed. When officers followed up on the reports, they said that the state of the home in which baby Kinsley and her siblings were living were some of the worst conditions they had ever seen. Officers said that it appeared that the trash had never been taken out.
There were flies and gnats flying all around the kitchen and the living room. In the bathroom, there were feces all over the toilet that hadn't been cleaned. The couch and the mattresses were covered in dirt. Kinsley's toddler-age sibling and a one-year-old baby were running and crawling around on floors that were covered in garbage, dirt, and cigarette butts.
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Chapter 2: How did Kinsley's living conditions contribute to her suffering?
There were full ashtrays, moldy food, and sharp objects all within the reach of the children. Rooms within that home were described as, quote, hazardous nightmares for an adult, let alone a toddler and a newborn. At the time, it was clear that little Kinsley was extremely malnourished and dirty.
She was covered in dirt and filth and had a dry mouth and pale lips and was determined to be in a failure to thrive state, losing weight despite being a tiny baby whose only job is to eat and grow. At the time, both Tori McClure and Bradley Welty were arrested. Tony was charged with four counts of child neglect while Bradley was charged with two counts.
For this, Toni would eventually plead guilty and was sentenced to 900 days in jail. However, for some unknown reason, her sentence was suspended after just six weeks. She was then given 540 days of probation. During that time of Toni being in jail, Kinsley and her siblings were obviously removed from the home.
I'm not sure what happened with all of the siblings, but Kinsley was placed into the care of DCFS and eventually was set to stay with family members. Ultimately, she lived with her paternal grandmother, Bradley's mother, Trisha Welty, after this first arrest. But after Tony was released from her 21 days in jail, DCFS ordered for Kinsley to return back to her care.
I haven't been able to find any information on why or how this decision was made. If you know more about that, please let me know. After being returned to Tony's care, as you can imagine, Kinsley's life only continued to get worse and worse.
Some articles say that DCFS continued to get reports about Kinsley and how she was being treated, and they tried following up on the reports numerous times, but I guess they just couldn't get a hold of Tony and weren't able to locate Kinsley, so not a whole lot was done.
Now, it's not exactly clear when this happened, but there was a time in which Kinsley was removed from the home again and placed into the care of her grandmother. According to Trisha, when they got Kinsley the second time, she was covered in bruises from head to toe. She had chunks of hair missing all throughout her head.
She was filthy and the living conditions within the home were just as bad as they always had been. I want to note that at this time, Bradley, Kinsley's father, was no longer living in the home with Tony and Kinsley.
After this second time being removed from the home, however, it was reported that the case wasn't properly investigated by DCFS, so by the time it was brought in front of the courts, they didn't have the proper evidence to keep Kinsley out of the care of Tony. So, because of this, the case was dismissed and Kinsley was sent back to live with her mother.
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Chapter 3: What actions did DCFS take regarding Kinsley's case?
At this time, the newborn tested positive for THC, meaning that Tony had been smoking weed while pregnant. After this was discovered, a caseworker did pay Tony a visit at her home. They weren't able to locate Kinsley during this visit, but Tony said that Kinsley was at her
didn't follow up with anything and they just ignored the fact that they were never able to see kinsley during these visits not bothering to do anything about it or looking further into it the children were not removed from the home despite the numerous other dcfs reports workers seeing the disgusting and unlivable conditions of the home and now it being clear that tony was doing drugs while pregnant
Everything in this case would come to a head on April 9, 2024. Just before 5.15 p.m. that day, the Indianapolis Police Department were called to report an unresponsive child within the home where Toni McClure and her children lived. When officers arrived, they found five-year-old little Kinsley unresponsive in the home. Officers actually located Kinsley within a townhouse. tiny closet.
The closet was covered in feces with handprints in those feces. There was a dresser placed in front of that closet, obviously as a way to prevent Kinsley from leaving the closet. Upon inspecting little Kinsley, officers could immediately tell that she was extremely malnourished, her eyes were sunken in, and her skin and lips were pale and dry, and she was covered in bite marks.
She was dirty, she had fecal matter all over her head, hands, and feet. She also had lice in her hair, which was extremely matted and unkept. First responders took little Kinsley to Riley's Children's Hospital in an attempt to save her life. However, their efforts were not enough. Five-year-old Kinsley Welty died in that hospital.
According to later autopsy, it was found that Kinsley died of starvation. At the time, it was found that Kinsley weighed just 21 pounds, literally half of what she was supposed to weigh at her age. Her weight put her in the zeroth percentile, far, far below what she should have been. It was clear that she had been starved for a prolonged period of time, leading to her death.
Of course, after seeing little Kinsley in that closet, the condition she was forced to suffer, and her dying in that hospital, 29-year-old Toni McClure was arrested and taken into the station for questioning. When she first started talking to the police, she told them that Bradley, Kinsley's father, was actually the one responsible for abusing and neglecting Kinsley.
However, that story quickly fell apart because Bradley didn't even live in the home. At the time, Tony actually had a boyfriend, 27-year-old Ryan Smith, who I will talk more about in just a minute.
But after some pushing, Tony ultimately cracked and told investigators some of the horrific, brutal things that little Kinsley went through throughout her life and especially in the months leading to her death. Starting on Thanksgiving in 2023, Kinsley spent most of her time locked inside a tiny closet which was barricaded by a dresser to prevent Kinsley from getting out.
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Chapter 4: What horrific events led to Kinsley's death?
A starving little Kinsley would rip the duct tape to get out of bed, so eventually, Tammy started tying her down to the bed. Again, she was preventing Kinsley from getting up to get something to eat. She was fully participating in the starvation torture of this five-year-old little girl.
Again, this just shows that not only did Toni want Kinsley out of her life, but she actively wanted her to be tortured. Because even when she wasn't under Toni's watch, even when Toni got a break from her daughter... she was still being abused by Tammy. And we don't exactly know why.
We don't know if Tony asked Tammy to do this or if Tammy had done this to Tony and it was just one of those things where it just runs in the family, I guess. And because Tony was treated that way, she treated her kids that way. There's really no explanation for any of this. But after finding out this new information, 53-year-old Tammy Halsey was also arrested.
As of right now, Tony McClure has been charged with murder, criminal confinement, and battery. Ryan is facing three counts of neglect leading to death, as well as criminal confinement. Tammy is being charged with neglect as well. I believe there are more charges in the works for Tammy.
Police have hinted at that, but the investigation is still ongoing, so we don't know when or if those charges will be applied.
What we are alleging here is that grandma had prolonged periods of contact with this child, was in a position to help this child.
Five-year-old Kinsley Welty was laid to rest today. The Marion County Prosecutor's Office believes she died of starvation and dehydration after she was found unresponsive last week at a southwest side home in Indianapolis. Her mother, Toni McClure, grandmother and McClure's boyfriend are accused of playing a role in her death. Today, they appeared in court for the first time.
Anything that you can say regarding this case?
There's a lot of conversation between both mom and grandma about what was going on with this child and what was the best way to deal with some of these issues. And I think that's the part that's so disheartening is that nobody stepped in and said, this child needs help. What can we do to try to help this child? And the thing that you consistently see and hear
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Chapter 5: What role did Kinsley's mother play in her abuse?
Yeah.
Very guilty to eat sometimes.
Grandparents Tricia and Brian Welty say the warning signs of Kinsley's health were reported, but say the Department of Child Services let them down.
We just don't want her death to be in vain. We want change. We don't want any more kids to have to die because of the failure of the system. It's not right. She was in our home and she was safe and she was loved. And she was handed back to her abuser. And she's not here anymore.
When she came to us the second time, she was bruised from head to toe. She had clumps of hair missing throughout her whole head. And she was given a hug. And she had already tried to starve her to death when she was three weeks old. And they gave her back.
Following a welfare check in 2021, the grandparents say they were fearful Kinsley would die.
I pleaded pleaded with DCS before that court case. My concerns about all that every bit of it and I was ignored.
According to police reports, the mother says just before Kinsley died, DCS was at the house but didn't see Kinsley. McClure says Kinsley frequently expressed that she wanted more food or that she was thirsty, but says she had a desire for her to be out of her life.
Many people are calling for a change in the system, specifically with how reunification of families is handled. Right now, anytime a child in the system is taken away from their family, the main goal is reunification. That is the number one goal in any case.
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Chapter 6: How did Kinsley's grandmother contribute to the neglect?
doing everything except protecting children. I'm so sick of hearing, well, we couldn't get a hold of her for years, so I guess there's nothing we can do. That is literally empowering abusers to just make the lives of everyone around them harder because if they do it enough, they'll just continue getting away with it.
I don't know what needs to be done to change the system, but something needs to be done because I'm so sick of hearing child protection workers not doing their damn jobs. I really hope that Tony, Ryan, and Tammy all get the absolute max sentences possible. I hope that Tony spends the rest of her miserable life in jail and never sees the light of day again.
I hope that sad excuse for a man spends as much time in jail as possible and same thing with that poor excuse for a grandmother. And I hope the other inmates know what they all did and I hope they fully pay for it. That's all I'll say about that. As of right now, that is all of the information that we know about this case. Tony's trial is scheduled for June of this year.
So if any new information comes out, I will keep you all updated either by updating the description of this video or if there's a lot of new information, I'll make a new video with that new information. But that is where I'm going to end today's case.
obviously you all know how i feel about this case how infuriating it is and how upsetting it is that this all keeps happening but now i want to know what you all think what do you think could have been done to prevent this what do you think of dcfs returning her home every time do you agree with me that tony went out of her way to torture her daughter
What do you think of Ryan and Tammy's involvement? Let's discuss this and any other thoughts that you have in the comments below. If you like this video, please make sure to go ahead and leave this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. I put out new true crime and mystery videos every single week.
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Stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope to see you next time. Bye.
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