Prosecutors cite Signal texts and an audio message as alleged steps in conspiracies that preceded William Evans-Ellis’ death.
CINCINNATI, Ohio — More than a month before police found 7-year-old William Evans-Ellis dead in a closet, prosecutors say three adults responsible for his care began exchanging messages that are now cited as evidence of alleged conspiracies to kidnap and kill him. Those communications have expanded a child-abuse homicide investigation into a case centered partly on what the defendants allegedly planned before William died.
The allegations are contained in a 13-count indictment against William’s mother, Kaitlin Evans, 38, and two adults who lived with her, Kirby Rankin, 33, and Nessa Keaney, 23. Prosecutors say the three served as co-parents to William. All have pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder, murder, kidnapping, felonious assault, endangering children and conspiracy. The electronic evidence may become especially important because the state is not alleging only that the defendants failed to protect William; it also accuses them of reaching agreements to commit crimes and taking actions toward carrying them out.
According to the indictment and prosecutors’ public account, the relevant communications began July 1. Investigators say Evans, Rankin and Keaney exchanged text messages over Signal, an encrypted communications service, between that date and Aug. 6, when police discovered William. The indictment identifies the exchanges as overt acts connected to alleged conspiracies. The full messages have not been publicly released in the reports reviewed for this article, leaving important questions about their exact language and context for later court proceedings.
A second communication is tied to July 4. Prosecutors allege Rankin sent Keaney an audio message through Signal that included a plan to kidnap and kill William. That accusation sharply changed the legal picture surrounding the case when the grand jury returned its indictment Aug. 13. The three defendants had initially been arrested on murder and child-endangerment allegations after William was found, but the grand jury added aggravated murder, kidnapping, felonious assault and two separate conspiracy counts, along with additional murder and child-endangerment charges.
The communications matter legally because a conspiracy case can focus on an alleged agreement and acts taken to advance it, rather than solely on who inflicted a fatal injury. Prosecutors have not publicly disclosed all the evidence they believe connects each defendant to the alleged agreement. Nor has a jury heard the messages, considered their context or ruled on what they prove. Each defendant has denied the charges through a not-guilty plea, and their lawyers will have an opportunity to challenge how prosecutors interpret the digital evidence.
Against that electronic timeline, investigators have described a separate physical timeline of alleged abuse. William was found Aug. 6 inside the Madison Road apartment in Cincinnati’s Oakley neighborhood. Authorities said his body was in a closet and had been restrained with duct tape. Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco later determined that he died from blunt-force trauma to the head. She also reported an upper-arm fracture, numerous bruises of different ages and additional injuries that indicated the need for further examination.
The varying ages of the bruises and the allegations described by investigators have supported the prosecution’s contention that William was subjected to mistreatment over an extended period, rather than during a single incident. A homicide detective testified early in the case about injuries consistent with repeated beatings. Police also described evidence they believed was consistent with William being held underwater and signs suggesting burns. Those allegations have not been proven at trial, and authorities have avoided publicly releasing every investigative detail while the criminal cases remain pending.
Another date in the chronology is Aug. 5. Prosecutors say Evans, Rankin and Keaney left the apartment together to take a dog to a veterinarian while William remained at home. Sammarco estimated that William had likely been dead for approximately a day before police found him Aug. 6. That estimate created a potentially important overlap between the medical timeline and the defendants’ movements. Authorities have not publicly established an exact time of death, so the significance of the veterinary trip is expected to depend on evidence that can withstand scrutiny in court.
The investigation itself began in an unusual way. On Aug. 6, Evans went to Mercy Health’s Rookwood emergency department without shoes and reported that Rankin was threatening to kidnap and kill William, according to local reporting. Medical staff contacted authorities. Police then went to the Madison Road residence, where they found the child dead. That sequence means an allegation about a threatened kidnapping immediately preceded the discovery of a child whose death would later produce an actual kidnapping charge and an alleged conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
The state’s case nevertheless involves three separate defendants whose lawyers have already disputed the idea that responsibility should be treated as equal. Evans’ lawyer said at an early hearing that the evidence would show someone else caused the boy’s death and framed the allegations against his client as primarily a failure to intervene. Keaney’s lawyer likewise argued that she was less culpable and said she had tried to tend to William after he was injured. Those defenses could place greater emphasis on who authored particular messages, who received them, how each person responded and whether words attributed to one defendant can legally establish another’s intent.
Rankin’s case generated a separate procedural issue after a defense attorney requested a competency evaluation. Keaney was also evaluated. On Sept. 15, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Christian Jenkins determined that both were competent to stand trial. No competency examination was ordered for Evans. The rulings address whether Rankin and Keaney are capable of understanding the proceedings and helping their lawyers; they do not decide whether the allegations in the indictment are true.
The indictment returned by the Hamilton County grand jury contains one aggravated murder count, four murder counts, one kidnapping count, one felonious assault count, four child-endangerment counts and two conspiracy counts for each defendant. Prosecutor Connie Pillich has said the aggravated murder charge carries the possibility of life imprisonment without parole. All three defendants pleaded not guilty Aug. 14, and the court maintained substantial bonds while the cases proceeded.
The electronic communications may eventually help a jury decide whether prosecutors can connect alleged planning to what happened inside the Oakley apartment. But important distinctions remain. A message can establish that words were exchanged without automatically proving how a sender intended them, whether a recipient agreed with them or whether later conduct resulted from the discussion. Those questions are among the issues prosecutors and defense lawyers are expected to address through testimony, records and arguments about the admissibility and meaning of the digital evidence.
For now, the Signal texts and audio message remain prosecution allegations embedded in a broader case that also includes medical findings, police testimony and evidence from the home. With Rankin and Keaney ruled competent and all three defendants maintaining not-guilty pleas, the proceedings can advance toward the stages in which the state’s account of those communications will face formal challenge in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Author note: Last updated September 21, 2026.