A young girl’s decomposed remains were discovered in her adoptive family’s backyard four years after she died.
Kennedy Jean Shroer was around six years old when she is believed to have died in November 2020, according to the Rose Hill Police Department. Her body was found on September 11 at her adoptive parents’ yard in Kansas.
‘She was a beautiful child, with an infectious smile,’ wrote the police department on Facebook.
Her body was so decomposed that a medical examiner could not determine her cause of death. The examiner confirmed Kennedy’s identity through DNA analysis.
There were no visible injuries, healing or healed, observed on Kennedy’s body.
‘We understand that many in the public might be confused how an arrest in this case has not been made,’ stated the police department.
‘That is completely understandable. What we would like to convey is that we have one chance to gather as much information as possible, to find out what happened to this child and to tell her story.’
Christa Helm, who claims to be Kennedy’s biological mother, said the unidentified Rose Hill family adopted three of her children. Helm had named her daughter Natalie Garcia, before the family changed her name to Kennedy.
Helm said she spoke with the police chief and then drove by the Rose Hill home of Shroers who adopted her daughters in 2019.
‘It paralyzed me,’ Helm told KSN.
‘We were just driving down the street, and there it was, just the thoughts of everything had already been going through my mind but may have happened. What has happened? What’s happening now?’
She added that she lost custody of her children in 2018 and figured they would have a better life with adoptive parents.
‘Now that DNA has come back, I know it’s Natalie, I know it’s Natalie, we all know it’s Natalie,’ Helm lamented.
She said the state of Kansas ‘failed my kids’.
‘I want them to get the proper therapy and love they need from their real family, where they belong,’ Helm said.
Helm is considering hiring an attorney to fight to get her other two daughters back, and is raising funds to give Natalie a proper funeral.
Police Chief Taylor Parlier insisted that ‘nobody involved in this case is numb to these events’ and that the investigation will seek answers to the full extent.
‘While we understand the desire to hold persons accountable,’ the police department stated, ‘We need to get this correct and not fast.’
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