DCFS timeline in foster child’s death reveals 10 caseworkers, but no
credible findings of abuse
[August 26, 2025]
By Beth Hundsdorfer
Two days before police found Mackenzi Felmlee gasping for breath at the
bottom of the stairs, her caseworker noted the foster mother told her
the girl was “struggling.”
On May 11, 2024, Mackenzi, an 18-year-old foster child, died at a local
hospital after she was found unresponsive in her Fairview Heights home.
Shemeka Williams, Mackenzi’s foster mother, and Williams’ mother,
Cornelia Reid, face first-degree murder and child abuse charges.
The caseworker, identified only as S.M., was the 10th child welfare
specialist in Mackenzi’s five-year-old case, according to a timeline
released by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
One of those 10 caseworkers, identified as D.R., was on Mackenzi’s case
for only three weeks. D.R. was assigned the case on May 17, 2023, and
ended the assignment on June 5, 2023 – just under a year before
Mackenzi’s death.
“That is antithetical to sound social work practices,” said Cook County
Public Guardian Charles Golbert, a critic of DCFS. “These kinds of
complicated cases need consistency and if there’s not, it’s likely that
things will fall through the cracks.”
DCFS released the timeline in Mackenzi’s case on Friday afternoon, two
months after Capitol News Illinois requested it. The state agency noted
the information released was sourced from Lutheran Child and Family
Services, which monitored Mackenzi’s case, and Caritas Family Solutions,
which licensed Shemeka Williams as a foster parent, and “is subject to
change as the investigation continues.”
DCFS initially resisted releasing a timeline on Mackenzi’s case, citing
the wishes of local prosecutors handling the murder charges against
Williams and Reid. The St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office later
confirmed to Capitol News Illinois last month they did not oppose the
release of the information.
Williams and Reid were arrested in June, more than a year after
Mackenzi’s death. They remain in St. Clair County Jail pending trial.
Mackenzi died from a blood clot that hit her lungs, doctors have said.
Her neck, shoulders, legs and face were bruised, and her dehydrated body
weighed just 90 pounds.
Williams’ 15-year-old biological daughter recorded a video of Mackenzi
as she struggled to breathe at the bottom of the stairs in the Fairview
Heights home. Police said it took nearly an hour for someone to call
911.
A doctor who reviewed the case told police if Mackenzi had received
immediate treatment, she likely would have survived the clot and made a
full recovery.
Mackenzi’s tumultuous teen years
The details of Mackenzi’s tumultuous teens years included parental
criminal activity, drug use, abandonment, sexual exploitation and
molestation by a guardian, then bouncing between relatives and foster
placements.
From May 2019 to April 2020, Mackenzi was placed in “several” foster and
relative placements that were “not able to meet her needs,” according to
the DCFS timeline.
In April 2020, Mackenzi was placed in Williams’ foster home after DCFS
determined she needed a specialized foster home for children with
medical, emotional or behavioral disorders.
Mackenzi, a former honor roll student, 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. One doctor opined those bindings, coupled with her diminished
physical condition likely caused the blood clot that went to her lungs
and caused her death.
The investigation into her death also revealed videotaped evidence of
Mackenzi’s abuse, including humiliation by mocking and being forced to
wear feces-stained masks and underwear on her face, prosecutors said.
Video footage played during a court hearing 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.”
In the final year of her life, DCFS records showed LCFS caseworkers and
supervisors visited Mackenzi in person 24 times.
But a search warrant application filed in court as part of the criminal
investigation into Williams and Reid called into question some of the
documentation made by at least one caseworker. In it, a Fairview Heights
detective stated that during their investigation into Mackenzi’s death a
caseworker was “copying and pasting notes for home visits, which does
not appear to have correctly documented the visits.”
In addition to the reported visits with caseworkers and supervisors, she
also met with an unspecified professional who was mandated by law to
report allegations of child abuse or neglect. Seven of those visits were
virtual and five were in-person.
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The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services released a
timeline into the case of Mackenzi Felmlee, inset, who mysteriously
died in her Fairview Heights foster home. (Capitol News Illinois
file photos)
Mackenzi’s juvenile case in Fayette County continued. On April 19, 2022,
the parental rights of Mackenzi’s mother and father were terminated.
LCFS reported that Mackenzi wanted to be adopted by Williams. Mackenzi
was 16 at the time.
Mackenzi met with her court-appointed lawyer in December 2023 — six
months before her death. There were also two court hearings on her case
— one on Sept. 14-15, 2023, and another on March 14, 2024. At the March
hearing, the DCFS timeline noted the court considered whether to change
Mackenzi’s goal, from adoption, but to independence. It’s unclear
whether Mackenzi attended those hearings either in person or virtually.
Requests to open Mackenzi’s juvenile case were denied.
Mackenzi attended Belleville East High School for 10th and 11th grade.
Prosecutors said Mackenzi was failing and truant, missing 15 out of 55
school days. She returned for the first semester of her senior year but
after turning 18 in July 2023, she stopped going to school, opting to
take night classes to finish her GED. She failed most of her classes for
not completing the work, prosecutors have said.
Caritas Family Solutions, the agency that licensed Williams as a foster
parent, also visited the home in person eight times and conducted two
virtual visits.
Timeline details other reports of abuse
Though DCFS stated in the timeline there were no reports of suspected
abuse of Mackenzi until May 11 when police called the agency hotline to
report Mackenzi’s death, there were reports of abuse of other children
in the care of Reid and Williams:
In 2022, while Mackenzi was living with Williams, another child who was
in the home alleged Williams abused them. DCFS interviewed the child at
the hospital and found no evidence of physical abuse. Williams told DCFS
she was trying to keep the child from jumping out of a car. The
allegation was unfounded.
In 2015, Reid was accused of abuse or neglect. The allegation was
unfounded and expunged. Four years later, Reid was accused of using a
belt as corporal punishment. DCFS did not find sufficient evidence to
support the allegation. But a 14-year-old 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 again was unfounded by the agency.
In January 2015 and January 2017, Williams was the subject of two
allegations related to abuse and neglect. DCFS investigated both
allegations. Both were unfounded and the allegations were expunged.
A 17-year-old girl told DCFS in 2017 that Williams left town without
planning for the girl’s care, according to prosecutors. 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.
A 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 of killing
Williams. This allegation, too, was unfounded.
Because DCFS investigators found no evidence of abuse, Caritas continued
to license Williams’ home and LCFS continued to place children,
including Mackenzi, with Williams.
In the month following Mackenzi’s death, DCFS interviewed Reid and
Williams, according to the timeline. Police gave access to some of the
investigatory files to a DCFS investigator, but a later request for
videos and other evidence is denied by police in September 2024.
Fairview Heights police inform DCFS that they are taking the lead on the
investigation.
In December 2024, DCFS asked again for information from police, but the
requests are denied, citing an ongoing investigation. For six months,
DCFS was told the investigation was pending. In May, police informed
DCFS that the case will go before a grand jury.
Capitol News Illinois is
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coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. |
