Fayette girl’s death leads to additional child abuse charges

Doctors determined that her 6-year-old brother was also subjected to severe abuse and neglect.

By RENATTA SIGNORINI
TribLive

Additional child abuse charges were filed Monday against two women who are accused in the death last week of a 9-year-old Fayette County girl.

Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said four children were removed from the Dunbar Borough home while authorities investigated the death of Renesmay Eutsey, whose body was found Thursday in the Youghiogheny River near Smithton.

The four other children, 11, 6, 3 and 2, were evaluated at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Doctors found one of them, a 6-year-old boy, had been subject to severe abuse and neglect. According to court papers, the child was the size of a toddler weighing about 24 pounds, had bruises all over his body and had been starved for months, something a doctor described as “deliberate and chronic neglect.”

The boy told hospital workers some of his teeth had been removed with pliers, police said in criminal complaints filed Monday against Sarah Shipley, 35, and Kourtney Eutsey, 31, both of Dunbar Borough.

“That child remains hospitalized and is in stable condition,” Aubele said in a statement.

Shipley and Eutsey were charged last week with homicide and related offenses in connection with Renesmay’s death. A girl who lives at the home on Third Street in Dunbar Borough told investigators she saw Shipley and Eutsey kicking and punching Renesmay, according to state police.

The girl said she later saw Renesmay in a black garbage bag inside of a plastic tote. Eutsey directed troopers to the location of Renesmay’s body in the river in South Huntingdon, according to court papers.

In an interview with police, Eutsey claimed the girl choked on vomit and died, according to court papers. She did not have an attorney listed in online court records. A Sept. 17 preliminary hearing is set in the homicide case.

In the abuse case filed Monday against the two women, an 11-year-old girl who lives at the borough home told investigators Shipley and Eutsey beat and choked her, hit her head on a wall and stepped on her stomach, according to court papers. Troopers reported noticing bruising on her mouth. She was forced to do chores, and food was withheld if she didn’t complete them.

The girl told police the women pulled her tooth out with a pair of pliers instead of making her a dentist appointment, according to court papers. Shipley and Eutsey are charged with aggravated assault, child endangerment and related offenses. Eutsey was arraigned Monday afternoon and remains at the Fayette County Prison without bail. A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 22 in that case.

All of the children have been placed in a foster home outside of Fayette County that is not connected to their families, Aubele said.

Shipley apparently attempted suicide Friday and was taken to Uniontown Hospital, police said. She has not been arraigned in either case. She did not have an attorney listed in online court records.