INDIANAPOLIS (Court TV) — Jury selection is scheduled to begin this week for a woman accused of killing her young daughter by starving her and confining her to a closet.
Toni McClure (Marion County Jail)
Toni McClure, 31, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, criminal confinement resulting in bodily injury and battery on a person less than 14 years old in the death of her daughter, 5-year-old Kinsleigh Welty.
Police responded to McClure’s home on April 9, 2024, and found Kinsleigh severely malnourished and unconscious. At 5 years old, she was 38.5 inches tall but weighed only 21 pounds — less than she weighed when she was 2.5 years old. Officers described her as being extremely thin with sunken eyes, a bruise on her face and fecal matter matted on the bottom of her feet and in her hair. She had lice or other small insects crawling on her face and hair and had unknown bites or sores on her abdomen.
McClure initially told police that she had picked up Kinsleigh that day after the child had spent time with her father; she said that Kinsleigh said she had a headache before collapsing on the floor. But McClure’s mother, Tammy Halsey, told officers a different story: She said that Kinsleigh hadn’t seen her father in more than a year and became unconscious after falling in the bathtub and slipping below the water.
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Kinsleigh Welty is seen in an undated family photo. (Welty Family)
When officers searched the home, they found a closet inside what appeared to be a bedroom for McClure’s sons that was blocked by a dresser. Upon moving the dresser and opening the door, they found human fecal matter on the carpeted floor and walls along with three empty protein shake bottles and a peanut butter sandwich on the floor.
Investigators said that McClure’s other children, Halsey and McClure’s boyfriend, Ryan Smith, all reported that Kinsleigh was forced to spend most of her time in the locked closet, coming out for only short periods each day.
In a second interview with officers, McClure allegedly admitted that she had neglected her daughter and said she never sought help because “she was scared to get into trouble” and didn’t want her other kids to be taken away. “Toni stated she was not going to lie, Kinsleigh told her that she wanted to die just prior to her death,” officers wrote in an affidavit reviewed by Court TV. “Toni believed Kinsleigh died because of malnourishment. Toni stated she did not know Kinsleigh had lice until she began the CPR. Toni stated she just assumed it was feces in her hair prior to the CPR.” She also allegedly admitted to keeping Kinsleigh in the closet “because she did not have to deal with her while she was in there.”
Text messages between McClure and her mother reveal they referred to the victim by a number of names, “including but not limited to, ‘Evil,’ ‘Demon,’ ‘Dips—,’ ‘Dummy,’ ‘Chunkers’ and ‘Heiffer.’
Halsey and Smith both pleaded guilty to a single count of neglect of a dependent resulting in death as part of an agreement with prosecutors. If they testify truthfully at McClure’s trial, they will each be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
