Kendall Chick was born on November 26, 2013, to parents Alicia Chick and Scott Hood. Her grandfather was Steven Hood, who was in a long-term relationship with a woman named Shauna Gatto; though they were not married, Steven called Shauna his fiancée, and they lived together. Kendall was born into a troubled family and had two older siblings whom she never met, as her mother lost custody of them before Kendall was born and they were adopted by other families. At the time of this story, Kendall had just turned four years old, possessing wispy blonde hair and a soft, infectious smile.
She was consistently described as a sweet, happy-go-lucky little girl. Her grandfather often called her his “little ray of sunshine,” and whenever he came home from work, Kendall would meet him at the door with a beaming smile, holding her little arms open wide for a hug. She absolutely loved Minnie Mouse; whenever her family brought her to the Family Dollar where they frequently shopped, Kendall would eagerly show the workers there her Minnie Mouse socks or shirt. Unfortunately, Kendall was born drug-affected, as both of her parents struggled with substance use, and her mother had used opioids while pregnant.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was notified by the hospital when the baby tested positive for substances and conducted their first assessment of Kendall’s family. The department offered Alicia and Scott help for their substance use disorder, parenting education, and housing assistance. They even helped Alicia find a stable place to live, and for a time, Kendall was able to stay with her parents. In August of 2014, the case with child welfare was officially closed, but just two months later, another report was made regarding suspected trouble in Kendall’s home.
The department investigated the new report but found no actionable issues. Around this time, Alicia started having Kendall’s grandparents babysit her. According to Steven, who was Scott’s father, he did not even know he had a granddaughter until she was seven months old, but once he and Shauna met the little girl, they began babysitting her on weekends. When she was not staying with her grandfather or one of the neighbors, Kendall lived in an apartment in Lewiston with her mother. As time progressed, Alicia fell back into her old habits and struggled significantly to take care of Kendall.
Instead of picking her up when the weekend was over, Alicia often left the baby with her grandfather for several weeks, or sometimes months, at a time. Steven and Shauna lived in a double-wide mobile home on Cricket Lane in Wiscasset, Maine. Although they were not married, they were engaged and had been together for 12 years. Shauna’s two adult children lived in trailers nearby on the same property. She had been working for a hospice agency in Brunswick but left her position to help take care of her grandson, as her son and his girlfriend had a baby boy about the same age as Kendall.
The family relied heavily on Shauna to take care of the children. Steven was a welder who worked long weeks, often exceeding 40 hours at the Bath Iron Works Harding plant and in Brunswick, so when Kendall was left at their home for extended periods, Shauna was the primary caregiver. Around March of 2016, Shauna’s son and his girlfriend had another baby, this time a little girl, and Shauna soon became the caregiver for her granddaughter as well. A few months later, in May, DHHS received another report from a concerned neighbor alleging that Alicia was neglecting Kendall.
They assigned caseworker Heather Campbell to investigate, and she found clear evidence of neglect. By this time, Kendall’s father was nowhere to be found, having succumbed to his substance habits and living on the streets. Alicia was not doing much better. When Heather told her that she was losing custody of her daughter, Alicia suggested placing Kendall with Steven and Shauna. Alicia claimed that Kendall already spent a lot of time there and was always happy when she returned. Her grandfather even sent her home with new toys.
The department generally preferred placing children with family members whenever possible. However, before placing a child with anyone—even relatives—their policy required criminal background checks and home inspections. Both Steven and Shauna were in recovery; they too had struggled with an opioid addiction and were taking Suboxone, a medication that blocks the effects of opioids on the brain. This alone would not have prevented them from caring for Kendall, but it should have prompted the department to supervise them more often and more closely. That, however, did not happen.
Shauna’s only criminal record was a misdemeanor shoplifting charge. Steven, however, had more than one prior conviction for assault and had also been convicted of domestic violence in Florida. Despite this, caseworker Campbell’s assessment stated she had done the required background check and found no evidence of convictions or pending charges. She claimed she and her supervisor were aware of Steven’s criminal record and that her supervisor knowingly signed off on placing Kendall with them. Due to this, DHHS later accused her of falsifying records.
This would not be the only time that the department would let Kendall down. That May, when Kendall was about three and a half years old, she was placed with Steven and Shauna full-time under a “safety plan.” The goal of the safety plan was to keep Kendall safe until her mother could get the help she needed and regain custody. It was voluntary, meaning they did not have to go to court, but that also meant Kendall had less protection. No Guardian ad Litem was assigned, so there was no one officially looking out for her best interests.
Shauna was now taking care of two toddlers along with an infant. They lived on the same property as their parents but spent most of the time at her home. She was the full-time caretaker of Kendall, who lived there with her and Steven. According to DHHS policy, caseworkers should have visited the home at least once a month to check on Kendall and evaluate her care, but that did not happen. Between June and October of 2016, the agency had five phone calls with Shauna, but no one visited the home on Cricket Lane.
During this time, Alicia was supposed to be getting herself clean so she could reunite with Kendall, but she was ultimately unable to do so. The last time she saw Kendall was sometime in June of 2016. In November and December of 2016, caseworker Heather Campbell conducted home visits. To Heather, Shauna seemed overwhelmed by the needs of the three children. She referred Shauna to training to help manage the household and also referred her to resources that offered respite care so Shauna could get a break and recharge, but Shauna did not utilize these resources.
In January of 2017, DHHS made one more phone call to Shauna because of Alicia’s continued absence. Caseworker Campbell advised Shauna and Steven to terminate Alicia’s parental rights and become official guardians for Kendall, but they never did. She had not been adopted or permanently placed, but in February of 2017, DHHS closed the case. They left Kendall in Shauna and Steven’s care with absolutely no oversight. Because Steven worked such long hours, Shauna was often home alone with the children.
According to Shauna, her infant granddaughter had a high-pitched cry; when she left the room, the baby would scream. With an infant in diapers to care for, she had little patience. When Kendall had an accident and soiled her pants, Shauna claimed Kendall would do so on purpose to force Shauna to pay attention to her. She said she called her mother every day to blow off steam and complain about the children. She referred to Kendall as a “drug baby,” claiming the three-and-a-half-year-old was lazy and often misbehaved.
She claimed Kendall was so clumsy that she constantly fell down and ran into walls. Her grandfather blamed her clumsiness on her developmental delays, stating that Kendall fell down often and did not protect her head. She always had bruises. In fact, she had so many bruises that it was uncomfortable taking her out in public, as they were afraid that someone would report them for mistreating her. Steven said he did not understand why Kendall did not protect her head when she fell, mentioning that he and Shauna discussed getting her a helmet.
Although he was sure he must have seen Kendall fall, he could not remember a particular incident. He said, “I would usually come in after the fact or Shauna would explain.” He noted that Shauna was often frustrated because he did not discipline the children, instead leaving it up to her. He recalled one time when Kendall soiled herself and he hit her with a belt three times. He said he felt “like crap” afterwards. The next day, he texted Shauna and told her, “I’m never doing that again because I don’t want her afraid of me.”
He claimed it did not leave a mark and that was the only time he ever struck her. Because there was no oversight, we only have glimpses of what Kendall’s life was like during the last months of 2017. Bonnie Lane, the Family Dollar cashier who always took a moment to look when Kendall showed off her Minnie Mouse clothing, noticed bruises. She asked about them, and Shauna said the girl fell out of bed. She talked to Shauna about getting government help for Kendall, but Shauna said the state dropped Kendall off and never came back to check on her.
Bonnie contacted DHHS but did not have enough information to identify Kendall or her grandparents without knowing their full names; consequently, she could not file a formal report. She planned to try to get more information the next time she saw the little girl, but she never had the chance. Steven also noticed that Kendall was becoming more bruised as the months passed. He said Shauna asked for a paddle to spank Kendall; she had been spanking Kendall with her hand but wanted a paddle so the spankings wouldn’t hurt her hand as much.
In a photo later revealed on Shauna’s cell phone, Kendall had dark purple bruises around her right eye, a swollen nose, and several cuts. The photo was dated August 8th. Steve said Shauna told him Kendall hurt herself when she accidentally fell into a door jamb. He did not see the accident but believed what Shauna had told him. He said the bruise faded to yellow the following week and he thought it was healing. Only a few weeks later, the same eye was bruised and swollen shut again.
On September 14th, Shauna texted Steven. She said, “I’m so [expletive] done with this kid. She’s been running around the house in her princess shoes and fell right into the coffee table.” Shauna also claimed Kendall went to the bathroom on the floor. While Kendall kept collecting deep bruises and other wounds, the other two children in the home—Shauna’s grandchildren—had no injuries. In November, Steven became concerned about Kendall’s head. He noticed it was swelling and was worried.
Shauna told him Kendall did not have a concussion and that she would be fine. Steven said Shauna reminded him that she worked in the nursing field and would know if there was anything seriously wrong with Kendall. He said they discussed taking her to the ER or to a doctor, but they both decided it would be unwise to take her given her condition. He said, “We both agreed on that. We couldn’t take her in public because obviously we have a child that has multiple bruises, so it would be awfully uncomfortable.”
Steven knew Shauna was frustrated. They discussed asking for help. Steven texted Shauna: “Call DHHS, see what they say. If they think she needs special care, they can place her. Fine, take her.” But the couple never called. They never asked for help. They never took advantage of any of the services DHHS recommended. The department never checked in; her mother never checked on her either. Everyone failed this little girl. On November 26th, Kendall turned four years old.
On December 6th, Steven texted Shauna again. He asked her what she wanted to do with Kendall. He said, “I don’t know what to do. Get rid of her. How? And if we did that, we’d have to carry the guilt.” Steven said that when he said “get rid of her,” he meant admitting they couldn’t take care of her and giving custody back to Child Protective Services. On December 8th, Steven went to work like he always did. Shauna stayed home with Kendall as usual. She was also watching her grandson, also four years old, and her granddaughter, now nine months old.
While Steven was gone, Shauna called her mother again to vent. That day, records showed she had stayed on the phone for more than two hours. When Steven got home at 3:30, he noticed that Kendall didn’t greet him at the door like she usually did. Shauna told him the little girl had thrown up and soiled her pants again. She said Kendall was in a “timeout” in the bathtub. Steven did a little work in the couple’s bedroom then went outside at dusk to check on his chickens.
A little before 4:30, Shauna texted her daughter-in-law, who worked at Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick. She said, “You need to get home now, I think Kendall is dead.” One minute later, Steven called 911. He said, “I have an emergency, my granddaughter is unresponsive.” The dispatcher told him how to perform CPR on the little girl. In the background, Shauna said she was fine 10 minutes ago. The two argued at one point during the call. Steven said, “What are you doing?” The dispatcher interrupted and told Steven that arguing with her was not going to help.
The dispatcher told Steven to use the speakerphone. After he put the phone on speaker, Shauna could be heard saying she had fallen a while ago, “like two days ago.” At another point in the call, Steven said, “We’re losing her.” Shauna cried and repeated, “She was fine.” EMTs arrived about six minutes after the call was placed. Inside the home, they first encountered two unnamed adults in the darkened living room; one was holding a small child, the other was holding a dog. The EMTs thought they were acting “off.”
Usually, they encounter people who are frantic and frightened, or focused on performing CPR. Only Steven and Shauna were in the back bedroom with Kendall. In that bathroom, the EMTs encountered a new horror. Kendall was on the floor on a bath towel. She was limp and lifeless. Steven was trying to perform CPR, but the little girl was not breathing. Her small body was covered in bruises and cuts. Her right eye was swollen shut and surrounded by deep purple skin. Some of the injuries looked new, but many looked older.
She was pale and cold to the touch. EMTs could not find a pulse. Given her condition, they would have expected to see bleeding, but there was none. In particular, they noted in their report the lack of blood on her chin; there was a fresh cut there, but no bleeding. After a few minutes, EMTs loaded her into the ambulance and rushed her to Mid Coast Hospital. While moving her, they felt what appeared to be a skull fracture. Her head appeared, in their words, to be “deformed and squishy.”
The head wound appeared to be older, and it didn’t look like an accident to these EMTs. Kendall was transported to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, about 25 minutes away. At the hospital, she still had no vital signs. When doctors intubated the little girl, her jaw was so stiff they suspected her body was in rigor mortis. They tried to bring her back to life for more than 30 minutes and even considered Life-Flighting her to a bigger hospital, but they couldn’t get her heart to beat. At 5:43 p.m., they declared Kendall dead.
Steven told detectives that he hadn’t seen Kendall that day until Shauna told him that she was unresponsive. While she told Steven that she had put Kendall in the tub as a timeout, Shauna told detectives that she put her in the tub to clean her up. She said she had left the bathroom for only a moment to get Kendall a drink. When she returned, she said the girl was unresponsive. At the home on Cricket Lane, detectives started collecting evidence. They found reddish-brown stains throughout the house.
Tests conducted on-site showed that the stains were blood. They found blood stains on the bathtub and also found evidence that someone tried to clean up. Blood was found on a sponge in the tub and on paper towels found discarded in a plastic bag in the same bathroom. They also found blood stains on a towel in the laundry hamper in the kitchen. The most disturbing evidence was found in the bedroom Kendall shared with Shauna’s grandchildren. They found blood on Kendall’s bedding.
The blood in the little girl’s bed was still wet. Nothing in Shauna’s story indicated Kendall was in the bedroom near the time of her death, and there was no reasonable explanation for why she would have been bleeding in there. Detectives also found a round dent in the wall of Kendall’s bedroom. The dent was the same size and shape as Kendall’s head. They found blood transfer in a strand of hair that looked like it belonged to Kendall embedded in the broken wall.
Later, DNA analysis would confirm that the blood belonged to Kendall. Shauna’s daughter-in-law responded to Shauna’s message that Kendall was dead. Her first text said, “I’ve never seen something so bad in my life.” The next said, “Did she hit her head off something?” That was horrible. The scene was so disturbing that several of the responding police officers and EMTs had to receive counseling because of what they saw. No one knew where Kendall’s mother and father could be found on the day of her death.
Her mother was found later at a local homeless shelter and was given the news. She hadn’t seen Kendall for over a year and a half. Police were unable to locate Kendall’s father, Scott, in the days after her death. Police arrested Shauna on December 14th, six days after Kendall died. At first, she was held without bail at the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. Later, her bail was set at $150,000, but she was unable to pay and remained in jail.
On December 19th, Steven placed a phone call to Shauna at the jail. A few minutes into the conversation, he told her, “We are not supposed to be doing this right now. We are supposed to be a happy home. I thought we were a happy home with happy children.” He said he wanted to know what happened to Kendall, but Shauna repeatedly said she didn’t know and swore she didn’t do anything to her. She asked why he was getting mad at her.
He asked several times what happened and said he wanted to know what killed his little girl. He said, “Had I known about it, I sure as [expletive] would have put a stop to it if there was any abuse going on in this house.” Shauna said, “Oh my God, is that what you think?” She asked Steven if he still loved her and trusted her. He said he did. She told him that should give him his answer. Later in the conversation, Steven pressed her for answers again.
He said, “Something happened.” Shauna swore on her life that nothing happened. He repeated, “Something obviously had to have happened. If there were no accidents that day like you say, then something doesn’t add up. The simple fact is something happened, and she bled internally in that house.” Shauna said, “I don’t understand that though, Steve, because she was fine.” While it seemed like Steven was finally standing up to Shauna and demanding answers, at the end of the call, he said, “You better start thinking, that’s all I can say.”
He added, “I love you with all my heart. I loved you the day before she died, and I loved you the day after.” Both Steven and Shauna knew their calls were being recorded; the phone call was later used as evidence at her trial. Shauna pled not guilty and waived her right to a jury trial. Superior Court Justice William Stokes was the judge who presided during the trial. Shauna’s interviews with detectives were entered into evidence. In them, she insisted all of Kendall’s injuries happened when the girl tripped or accidentally fell.
She said, “When she’s walking, she trips over air.” She told detectives that Kendall fell down all of the time and often didn’t put out her hands to catch herself. When asked if Kendall fell every day, she responded, “I can’t say it was everyday, but pretty close.” When asked about the many, many bruises Kendall had, Shauna said, “Honestly, I couldn’t tell you where half of them were from.” When asked, she told detectives that she did nothing for herself and that no one ever did anything for her either.
Crying, she told them, “I don’t have any me time. I just invested in my grandkids; it’s all I have.” Later, she told detectives, “I never thought this was going to happen. She was fine. I don’t know what happened; you tell me what the [expletive] happened.” The forensic scientists and medical examiner did exactly that. They showed that Shauna’s story didn’t match the physical evidence found in the house and on Kendall’s body. Shauna claimed she was the only adult alone with Kendall on the day of her death.
Police found evidence of trauma and the cleanup of blood in multiple rooms of the house. If Shauna was the only person there, she had to have been responsible for the trauma and the cleanup. Prosecutors also pointed out that Kendall only seemed to have accidents when Shauna was the only person watching her. Shauna swore the little girl was fine minutes before the 911 call, but multiple witnesses said that would have been medically impossible.
EMTs, a paramedic, the emergency room doctor, and the forensic pathologists all agreed that Kendall would have been in severe pain from the physical trauma she had suffered. Shauna also claimed that Kendall was breathing and talking and her body was warm just before she became unresponsive. This does not match what other witnesses observed. Steven said her body was cold while he was performing CPR. EMTs said she was pale and lifeless.
Based on the signs of rigor mortis and the emergency room doctor who observed her, he believed Kendall could have been dead hours before the couple called 911. The most disturbing testimony was given by the chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum. His name may sound familiar; he is the same person who testified in the case of Marissa Kennedy. Marissa was another young girl who fell through the cracks at Maine’s DHHS. She lived a little over an hour away from Kendall and died just two months later.
Dr. Flomenbaum performed Kendall’s autopsy. During his testimony, images of Kendall’s 30-pound, pale, and ravaged body were shown on the screen in the courtroom. The photos were so graphic and disturbing that even the medical examiner struggled to look at them. When one image had been projected for a long time during his testimony, he asked prosecutors to take it down. He found multiple contusions and lacerations to her body. In other words, her body was bruised and cut all over.
The wounds varied in age, and she had them on her head, neck, both arms, and both legs. He found between 15 and 20 distinct wounds on her body. Her right eye was swollen shut, and deep purple bruises surrounded it. This is the same eye that had been bruised repeatedly since August, four months before her death. Her right ear was bruised in a way that was consistent with someone twisting her ear.
The doctor said four bruises on the left side of her face were arranged in a parallel pattern that would, and I quote, “absolutely fit had it been a hand that caused the injury.” He also noted a soft, spongy feeling area on the right side of Kendall’s head along with a ridge that did not belong. This is the finding that led EMTs to believe that she had a skull fracture. Once her head was x-rayed, the doctors discovered it was not a fracture.
Instead, it was scar tissue from an older injury. Her brain was swollen and showed signs of hemorrhage; she was bleeding under her scalp. Dr. Flomenbaum examined her thymus gland, which showed that she was under immense stress for a long period of time. He said she had been under stress for a long time; we’re talking weeks or months. He concluded she suffered from “Battered Child Syndrome,” which is a trauma that results from repeated beatings and mistreatment.
Kendall also suffered from what he called a “catastrophic event” that ultimately caused her death. This catastrophic event was blunt force injury to the abdomen. This caused lacerations of her pancreas and other internal injuries to the membrane surrounding the colon and stomach. These injuries caused her to bleed internally. Her swollen belly wasn’t bruised on the outside. Dr. Flomenbaum concluded that the internal lacerations were caused by a slow, squeezing force—a force more than the normal amount of force that should ever be used with a child or anybody else.
Multiple blunt force trauma to the head also contributed to her death. In Dr. Flomenbaum’s expert opinion, it would have taken her 1 to 12 hours to die. He ruled her death a homicide. Justice Stokes did not believe Shauna’s claims that Kendall’s injuries were accidental. He found Shauna guilty of depraved indifference homicide on April 30th, 2019. The charge of depraved indifference meant that while Shauna showed no regard for Kendall’s life, the judge didn’t think she killed her intentionally.
Depraved indifference comes with a sentencing recommendation of 25 years to life. The judge said he considered giving her a life sentence but instead sentenced her to 50 years. He believed Shauna was overwhelmed by the needs of the three young children. Despite this leniency, he called her actions a “horror.” He said the physical abuse suffered by Kendall Chick, when viewed objectively and in the totality of all the circumstances, can only be described as “outrageous, revolting, shocking, and brutal.”
Shauna appealed in June of 2020. The Maine Supreme Court upheld her conviction. In their decision, they noted that the long-term abuse of Kendall could be considered torture. Shauna is currently serving her time at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, Maine. Kendall’s case, along with the death of Marissa Kennedy, caused a public uproar and launched an investigation of DHHS. The agency discovered a failure to follow agency policies as well as problems with casework and oversight.
As part of the internal investigation, the department examined the work done by Heather Campbell. Though she wrote on the official documents that she performed the appropriate background checks, investigators could find no evidence that she did. No copies of the background checks were found in the files. A search of Heather’s email found no evidence that she requested them. On August 3rd, 2019, the regulatory board for social workers revoked Heather’s professional license and fined her $1,000.
They determined that she exhibited gross negligence, incompetence, and misconduct. Heather insisted that she did nothing wrong and said DHHS was using her as a scapegoat for Kendall’s death. She said her supervisors knew about Steven’s criminal record and agreed to the placement anyway. Her supervisors no longer work for the agency, and no one has come forward to confirm or deny her claims. She also said that during her time at the agency, there was high staff turnover and that everyone had an unsustainable workload.
When recalling the shock that she felt when she was notified that Kendall was dead, Heather said, “I don’t think anyone can understand what that’s like. I’m a sensitive person, an empathetic person; that’s why I got into social work. But I’ve also seen enough bizarre situations to know that anything is possible.” Heather was not alone in this criticism. Both internal and external investigations concluded that the department was overburdened and understaffed.
In response to this criticism, the agency has added more staff, improved training, and modernized their computer systems. They found that safety plans like the one used for Kendall were often not properly monitored and lasted too long, as happened in her case. It made them dangerous to the children they were supposed to protect. The department has stopped using safety plans for placements outside the home. DHHS also changed their policy about background checks; they now require supervisors to personally review criminal background checks when placing a child with relatives.
Senator Bill Diamond of Windham and other state and local officials held several events to remember child abuse victims from Maine. On September 29th, 2021, Diamond spoke at a public meeting for Kendall. This meeting was held at the Wiscasset Community Center. At the meeting, he reiterated his belief that DHHS could have saved the little girl. He said, “I’m convinced Kendall would be alive today if someone had visited the house and seen those bruises. There were so many red flags there that it just makes you sick.”
“The smallest amount of effort could have saved this child.” In some ways, Kendall left this world as quietly as she entered it. There was no birth announcement when she was born, and no one wrote an obituary for her when she died. Though the community held at least two vigils to remember her, most of the people who attended had never met the sweet little girl. She never had a wake, or a viewing, or a funeral service.
Months after her death, her mother used Kendall’s name and the abuse she suffered to panhandle money on the streets of Portland, Maine. Alicia claimed she was raising money for a funeral, but she didn’t do that. Erica Sherman organized a vigil on December 20th, 2017, at the Wiscasset Community Center. She had never met her, but she was the mother of two young girls close to Kendall’s age. She said she couldn’t stop thinking about the little girl who didn’t live long enough to celebrate her fourth Christmas.
Kendall’s grandfather also attended the vigil. He wore a hood pulled up over his head and looked at the ground; he did not speak. Bonnie Lane, the Family Dollar employee who noticed Kendall on her visit to the store, attended the vigil. She released a bouquet of Minnie Mouse balloons in Kendall’s memory. “She came into the store, the first time I met her, and she just stole my heart. The second that I saw her,” Bonnie said.
Kendall Chick, just four years old, had an adoring smile and loved Minnie Mouse, but she won’t get to attend kindergarten. Police say her grandfather’s fiancée is responsible for her gruesome murder. It was very stomach-sickening and just heartbreaking, especially, you know, let alone it happening, but around Christmas time. Erica Sherman didn’t know Kendall or her family, but she decided she needed to do something to honor the little girl’s memory and help the town cope in the process.
“I feel like if we can all come together as one, it can help us with some closure.” The result of that was a candlelight service tonight at the Wiscasset Community Center. In the disbelief, the questions, and our righteous anger, we pray for justice for Kendall and security for the smallest among us. Many of the folks in town here say they’re having a hard time coming to terms with what happened, but this display shows exactly what it means to have the support of their neighbors and friends during these difficult times.
“She’s just a beautiful little four-year-old girl, and she smiled all the time. She never stopped smiling.” Bonnie Lane is a mandatory reporter, someone who is trained to look for signs of child neglect and abuse. She says she suspected something was wrong at home for Kendall and tried to inform authorities. “I couldn’t get the information that I needed to help her, and I was afraid for her.”
Tonight, she shared her painful story in hopes that it will help others in the future. She also had a message for Kendall: “I love you so much. You will always be with me. You’ll always be in my heart and in the hearts of dozens of others in this close-knit community.” In the freezing cold, more than a hundred people from the community gathered in the circular driveway of the center. When they lit their candles, the light formed a bright circle.
Local Reverend Joshua Fitterling led the crowd in prayer. He said, “The loss of Kendall’s light causes us pain, sadness, and anger. It happened as the darkest night of the year approaches, but the sun will come again. Light will overcome darkness.”
Editor’s Note: The events described in this narrative represent a profound tragedy and a failure of the systems intended to protect the most vulnerable. Kendall Chick’s life was cut short by systemic oversight and direct abuse. This story serves as a somber reminder of the necessity for vigilance, the importance of mandatory reporting, and the moral imperative to protect children from harm.
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
