Article Summary
- An 18-year-old girl died in a foster home in Fairview Heights, Illinois, where she lived for four years.
- The state’s Department of Children and Family Services is refusing to release a timeline of her case until a criminal investigation and trial are completed.
- A decades-old state law requires the agency to release a report within six months of a child death or life-threatening injury.
- Lawmakers and child advocates are calling for transparency in all cases involving deaths or serious injuries.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. (Capitol News Illinois) – Mackenzi Felmlee fell through the safety net of doctors, judges, lawyers, social workers, teachers, child welfare organizations and the state agency charged with protecting abused and neglected children in Illinois until she was found bruised and struggling to breathe at the bottom of the basement stairs in a Fairview Heights foster home.
Eighteen-year-old Mackenzi died on May 11, 2024, from a blood clot that hit her lungs, doctors said. Her neck, shoulders, legs and face were bruised, and her dehydrated body weighed just 90 pounds.
But the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has refused to release a timeline or reports detailing their actions in the case — despite a law that requires DCFS to make findings and recommendations available when a child dies or is seriously injured in its care.
And it likely won’t release any information for years.
Last month, a St. Clair County grand jury indicted Mackenzi’s foster mother, Shameka Williams, and Williams’ mother, Cornelia Reid, herself a former foster parent, on charges of first-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated domestic battery, intimidation, unlawful restraint and domestic battery in connection with Mackenzi’s death.
“We won’t have a timeline to share until after a trial takes place,” DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan wrote June 26 in an email to Capitol News Illinois.
Lutheran Child and Family Services, a DCFS contractor, employed the caseworker who oversaw Mackenzi. It declined to comment citing confidentiality, aside from calling the incident “tragic.”
During her time in Williams’ foster home, Mackenzi was the target of beatings and tortuous behavior, including humiliation by mocking and being forced to wear feces-stained masks and underwear on her face, prosecutors said during a court hearing. Despite repeated complaints of abuse and neglect from other foster children in the home, Mackenzi remained in Williams’ home for four years.
While Mackenzi died more than a year ago, a DCFS spokesperson said the state agency could not conduct a procedural review of what happened inside the home until a criminal investigation is completed, citing a portion of state law that says information should not be released if it could undermine a criminal investigation or trial.
Under a 1997 Illinois law, DCFS is required to produce a report on every child who is a ward of the state who dies or sustains serious injury. The report should contain findings and recommendations for administrative or policy changes.
Earlier this year, Illinois Answers Project reported that DCFS failed to produce these reports that examined failures in more than 1,200 deaths and 3,000 life-threatening injuries to children in the state’s care since 2018.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart sponsored the law in 1997 when he served in the state legislature. That law was amended in 2008 to make the reports public after a series of news stories by the Belleville News-Democrat about 53 children who died while in DCFS’ care. The law requires a presumption that the best interest of the public will be served by releasing information concerning the child’s death and any other investigations concerning the child or other children living in the household.
The law’s goal was transparency and accountability to restore public trust in the child protection agency, Dart told Capitol News Illinois.
“The public who, by the way, is paying for this entire system. The public deserves to know what happened here, what went wrong with this,” Dart said.
The long fall of Mackenzi Felmlee
Mackenzi Rose Felmlee was born July 13, 2005, to Bonnie Rose Felmlee and Rasul Sykes. She had three sisters.
In 2015, Bonnie Felmlee, facing a prison sentence for a theft charge in Nevada, entrusted Dennis Pickens with the care of 10-year-old Mackenzi and her sisters. The next year, Pickens asked a Fayette County judge to formally appoint him guardian. The request was approved in January 2017.
At that time, Pickens wrote in his guardianship petition that Mackenzi was a “normal 12-year-old girl” and was above average in school. In junior high, she was on the track team and the honor roll.
Bonnie Felmlee moved into Pickens’ Vandalia home with Pickens and her children after her release from prison.
In August 2018, Bonnie Felmlee called police and reported that she found 20 naked pictures of then-13-year-old Mackenzi on Pickens’ phone, according to court documents.
Pickens, a retired federal prison guard, was charged with four counts of producing child pornography. That was followed by another charge of predatory criminal sexual assault with Mackenzi as the victim.
Though it declined to provide a detailed timeline of its involvement in the case, DCFS responded to Capitol News Illinois’ questions regarding when Mackenzi came into state care and certain aspects of her care.
In May 2019, DCFS took custody of Mackenzi and her siblings. The four sisters were sent to separate homes — with only two remaining together.
DCFS confirmed that Mackenzi was placed in Williams’ foster home in Fairview Heights in April 2020 under the supervision of Lutheran Child and Family Services.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident, and our hearts go out to all those affected,” a spokesperson for Lutheran Child and Family Services responded in an email.
The DCFS contractor declined further comment, citing confidentiality rules.
Mackenzi enrolled in Belleville East High School. Her grades were average in 2020 and 2021. A month after her placement with Williams, Mackenzi posted a video to TikTok with Reid, doing a choreographed dance with the caption: #coolgrandma.
But later in 2021 and 2022, things seemed to take a turn. Mackenzi was failing and truant, missing 15 out of 55 school days, records showed. She enrolled in night GED classes in January 2023 where she failed most of her classes for not completing the work.
In response to written questions, DCFS said they are “looking into” who permitted Mackenzi to leave regular school with Lutheran Child and Family Services.
In 2022, another foster child came into Williams’ home — a girl identified by prosecutors only as “D.E.” who later would tell police “when you first move in with Shameka, it was fine, but the longer you were there the worse it got.” She told police that Williams would withhold food, not allow the girls to shower, and hit them with whatever she could find: a belt, a hanger, or her hand.
Three years after DCFS took custody of the former honor roll student, Mackenzi was diagnosed with multiple mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and depression. She reportedly was under psychiatric care. She was also incontinent; Williams made her wear diapers tied with plastic bags to her legs to keep the waste from leaking, prosecutors said.
But according to a report from the DCFS Office of the Inspector General, Mackenzi wanted her foster mother to adopt her, though it isn’t clear where this information was obtained by the OIG. Mackenzi, who was by then nearly 17 years old, had been in Williams’ home for two years.
The OIG report also documented the breakdown between Mackenzi and her biological family, stating she refused visits with her sisters.
Despite losing her parental rights in April 2022, Bonnie Felmlee tried to find out about the pending criminal case against the man accused of molesting Mackenzi — a case that dragged on for more than seven years. Pickens was found guilty in October 2024 — five months after Mackenzi’s death.
Required reporting ignored
There are two public reports that mention Mackenzi’s death — the DCFS Office of the Inspector General Annual Report to the Governor and the General Assembly for 2024, and the Departmental Report on Death or Serious Life-Threatening Injury.
Mackenzi’s case was one of 202 deaths or serious injuries to children in Illinois from April 1 to June 30, 2024, listed in quarterly reports to the legislature, although the names of those who died are not listed, but the report dates and cities are listed. One case corresponded to Mackenzi. The cause of death for Mackenzi was listed as death by neglect.
The report listed both the DCFS investigation and the criminal investigation as pending. There was no follow-up in subsequent quarterly reports.
These anonymous quarterly reports include the date the incident was reported to DCFS; whether the child was in DCFS custody; the status of the allegation; what, if any, action DCFS took; whether criminal charges were filed; and the legislative district, city and zip code where the death or injury occurred.
Of those 202 cases, there are 45 deaths listed. Criminal charges were issued in six of the cases.
Capitol News Illinois reached out to legislators with questions regarding Mackenzi’s death to determine whether they received more comprehensive reports. Sen. Erica Harriss, R- Glen Carbon, in whose district Mackenzi lived, confirmed she had received no findings or recommendations related to Mackenzi’s death.
Harriss contacted DCFS Director Heidi Mueller, who responded in a July 3 letter that “All at DCFS are heartbroken by what occurred.”
In the letter, Mueller cited the administrative rule that directs DCFS to extend its investigatory timeline when prosecutors or police request the department to delay making a determination due to a pending criminal investigation.
“In short, in this case, DCFS will complete its investigation once law enforcement has finished theirs,” Mueller stated.
Mueller further stated Fairview Heights Police continue to investigate the case and “had not shared the information it had gathered with DCFS, including electronic forensic evidence that appear necessary to understand this case.”
Fairview Heights police declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
“I will continue to closely monitor this situation and strongly advocate for the protection and well-being of our most vulnerable children, as well as prosecution and accountability of those whose negligence has contributed to this tragedy,” Harriss said in a statement to Capitol News Illinois.
Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, an outspoken critic of DCFS, provides legal representation to thousands of abused and neglected children who are wards of the court. Golbert said DCFS needs to be swift and open in releasing information regarding their handling of Mackenzi’s case.
“We call on DCFS for full transparency including prompt release of a detailed timeline about its prior involvement with the family and what its representatives observed when investigating and licensing the home and visiting Mackenzi and others in the home, and the details of its investigations of all other reports of child abuse in the home,” Golbert said in a statement.
The OIG reported that “the youth’s placement worker made regular visits and last saw the youth two days before her death.”
Police have said the Mackenzi’s injuries were in various stages of healing, but it is not known whether the Lutheran Child and Family Services’ placement worker reported any injuries, as required by law. DCFS did not disclose whether there was a pending abuse investigation regarding Mackenzi prior to her death.
Mackenzi was also the subject of a juvenile abuse case. That case was filed in Fayette County, where she was taken into state custody when she was living with her mother and Pickens in Vandalia.
In Illinois, the media have special standing to attend juvenile hearings, but juvenile court files are closed to the public.
Fourth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Martin W. Siemer declined a request by Capitol News Illinois to review the file, finding that although the law provided juvenile court cases may be obtained for good cause, the law restricts who can see those records and found the press is not among them.
Dart contended that a procedural review of Mackenzi’s death was long overdue, given she died more than a year ago.
“The nature of this bill was to be just very straightforward. These kids’ deaths were to be investigated, the facts of what happened were to be divulged, and it was to be divulged so we can fix it and that it doesn’t happen again. And anyone who’s not following that is somebody who clearly, clearly does not have the best interest of these children at heart,” Dart said.
Inside the foster home
Shameka Williams became a licensed foster parent in 2012 with special training to house children with emotional, behavioral or other special needs, according to DCFS. She was licensed by another DCFS contractor, Caritas Family Solutions.
In a court hearing, prosecutors detailed abuse allegations involving Williams that dated back a decade, including:
- In 2015, a 14-year-old reported that Williams hit him with a belt and threatened to take away his belongings if he left. He showed the investigator scars, but Williams told them that the boy was dark complected, making it difficult to determine whether the injuries were old or new. The boy told the investigator that if he was returned to Williams, he would attack her and run away, preferring to “die in the cold than stay.” The boy was removed, but the allegation was unfounded.
- A 17-year-old girl told DCFS in 2017 that Williams left town without planning for the girl’s care. Williams allegedly told the girl to “sleep outside” because no one would care for her because she wasn’t behaving. Williams later left the girl in the care of a friend, who was supposed to take her to school. The foster child missed four days of school. The teen told the worker she cried herself to sleep. The allegation was unfounded.
- Another 16-year-old foster child in Williams’ care took a bus to her former foster home. Williams went and dragged the child out and threw her in the car. She told medical personnel that she didn’t feel safe at Williams’ home and reported thoughts of suicide, as well as killing Williams. The allegation was unfounded.
DCFS said because investigators found no evidence of abuse, the agency continued to place children with Williams and left Mackenzi in the home.
In addition to physical abuse of Mackenzi, there were also documented cases of mental abuse. At a court hearing, prosecutors showed video footage that showed Mackenzi being beaten by Williams with a belt while the teen is forced to say, “It’s not good to manipulate.”
In another video, Williams forced Mackenzi to repeat: “I am a doof. I hate myself.”
Reid, Williams’ mother who had retired as a foster parent, also faced allegations of abuse.
In 2019, an 11-year-old boy reported Reid beat him with a belt. She also allegedly punched him and hit him with a brush. The boy was removed from the home, but the investigator found no evidence of abuse.
Fairview Heights Police reported they received 31 calls involving Williams, Reid or the foster home in the five years prior to Mackenzi’s death. Police declined to release details of those calls.
Her foster sister, identified as D.E., later told police that Mackenzi wasn’t happy and things got worse for her as her 18th birthday approached. Without a legal tie to her parents and still a ward of the state, Mackenzi waited for the adoption to proceed. It was not completed by July 13, 2023, Mackenzi’s 18th birthday.
Ten months later, on the day before Mother’s Day, Mackenzi died.
“This child was in the custody of the state, so theoretically, in a practical sense, we were their parents at the time,” Dart said. “Okay, so we need to learn what went wrong here, because this was our system that we put this child in. And so, we need to find out quickly what went wrong so it doesn’t happen again.”
(Reporting by Beth Hundsdorfer, Capitol News Illinois)
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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