Women accused of failing to report child abuse
Police say they should have noticed signs of abuse on 9-year-old who was killed
Two women are charged with failing to report suspected child abuse against a 9-year-old girl believed to have been killed last year, as well as other children in the same home.
Theresa Shipley, 63, of Scottdale, and Sandra Umensetter, 51, of Connellsville, both face three counts each of endangering welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person.
Theresa Shipley is the mother of Sarah Shipley, who along with Kourtney Eutsey is charged with killing Renesmay Eutsey in September. Police said Theresa Shipley was a mental health aid at Penn Highlands – Connellsville hospital in the months before Renesmay’s death.
Umensetter described herself to police as Sarah Shipley’s best friend.
Police alleged both women visited Renesmay and the other children at their Dunbar Township home and were in contact with Sarah Shipley and Kourtney Eutsey, who were the guardians of all of the children.
Eutsey and Sarah Shipley initially reported Renesmay missing Sept. 4, but one of the children in the house told police they had seen the women carrying Renesmay’s body downstairs in a tote bag. Eutsey later drove officers to the remote spot on the Youghiogheny River where she had dumped the tote bag with Renesmay’s body, weighed down with rocks, police said.
Eutsey and Sarah Shipley are also accused of abuse and neglect of two other children in the house.
Cellphone records showed Theresa Shipley had been at the house on three dates between Aug. 1 and Sept. 4, according to court documents. Over the same span, records indicated, Umensetter had been at the home 16 times.
An autopsy released in March documented numerous bruises on Renesmay’s body, along signs of malnourishment and a height and weight around the third percentile, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
“These two individuals would have been in the home at times where the suffering of this child would have been evident, and where any type of intervention probably would have saved her life, and they did nothing,” said Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele.
On Sept. 11, James Bryant, a chaplain at Penn Highlands Hospital, told police Theresa Shipley had told her in August she wished Sarah Shipley would get rid of the kids, who she said were “so mean” to Sarah. She further described Renesmay as “evil” multiple times in the conversation, accusing her of attacking one of the children, Bryant told police.
Bryant said Theresa Shipley frequently mentioned going to her daughter’s house, the complaint said.
In his opinion, he told police, Theresa Shipley would definitely have noticed the bruises, as well as the ongoing malnutrition of the other children.
“(Bryant) related after learning about this, any grandparent in their right mind would have called CYS and taken the kids to their own house,” the complaint said.
Umensetter told police she had last seen Renesmay, who “looked fine,” on Aug. 27 or 28. She had last been at the house on Aug. 24, where she saw one child who was noticeably “tiny” and was told the children would eat their own excrement, she told police. She did not contact CYS, the complaint said.
No bail information for Theresa Shipley and Umensetter was available Tuesday afternoon.
At this point, there are no other impending charges, Aubele said, though he couldn’t rule it out.
“No case is ever closed, no investigation is ever done,” he said. “We will continue to investigate every case with the intention of bringing every person responsible for hurting a child to justice.”
Because she was a mental health aid and a mandated reporter, Theresa Shipley faces three additional counts of failing to report suspected child abuse.