Prosecutors say they don’t oppose release of DCFS timeline in foster
child’s death
[July 31, 2025]
By Beth Hundsdorfer
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for weeks has
repeatedly refused to release a timeline detailing its involvement with
Mackenzi Felmlee, the 18-year-old who died after being found
unresponsive in her Fairview Heights foster home. While the agency has
said they were deferring to local prosecutors, the St. Clair County
state’s attorney’s office confirmed to Capitol News Illinois this week
it does not oppose the release of the information.
In a July 10 email, DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan denied requests
for the timeline, citing an objection from the office prosecuting
Shemeka Williams, Mackenzi’s foster mother, and Williams’ mother,
Cornelia Reid.
“At the request of the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s office and
pursuant to DCFS Rule, we have not concluded or closed the DCFS
investigation so (as) not to interfere with the criminal investigation
and judicial process,” the email stated.
Gov. JB Pritzker, at a July 28 news conference, said it was “kind of a
right-wing talking point that we’re withholding information,” echoing
the sentiment the department was fulfilling the request of local
prosecutors.
DCFS said it had instructions in writing from the state’s attorney’s
office that all information related to Mackenzi’s death investigation
remain confidential. State law requires that a report of a child’s death
be made available, but that information should not be released if it
could undermine a criminal investigation.
On June 27, St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney Bernadette
Schrempp wrote to Carla Long, DCFS’ Belleville Field Office area and
another DCFS employee, Holly Mulvany, that some information could be
released.
“My office has no opposition to DCFS releasing information on the youth
in your care pursuant to your department protocols, so long as death
investigation-related information remains confidential,” Schrempp sent
the email on June 27 – a day after Capitol News Illinois requested a
timeline of caseworker involvement with Mackenzi.
Tarczan refused the request the same day it was made, stating, “We won’t
have a timeline to share until after a trial takes place.”
On Wednesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Chris Allen, who serves as the
office spokesperson, further clarified prosecutors’ position in an email
to Capitol News Illinois.
“We do not oppose the release of any of this information,” he said in an
email, later clarifying the office had “no objection to the timeline”
being released.
Mackenzi’s death
Mackenzi died May 11, 2024, in a Metro East hospital after she found at
the bottom of the stairs in her foster home. Doctors said she died from
a blood clot to her lungs, aggravated by trauma and dehydration.
Her caregivers, Williams and Reid, were charged last month in Mackenzi’s
death and remain in the St. Clair County Jail.
While DCFS officials have provided limited answers related to Mackenzi’s
case, they have denied requests for a timeline that would detail the
agency’s contact with the child and any abuse and neglect investigations
regarding Mackenzi and the foster home.
Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, of Savanna, said she is
troubled by the lack of transparency in deaths of DCFS wards like
Mackenzi.
“It’s, you know, a case like this, when a child is in our care and is
killed under our care. And you hear about it, people are horrified, and
then it dies down. Nobody’s talking about it at DCFS. And then there’s
another one and then rinse and repeat,” McCombie told Capitol News
Illinois on Wednesday.
State Sen. Erica Harriss, R-Glen Carbon, who represents the district
where Mackenzi’s foster home is located, said her primary concern is
justice for Mackenzi and her loved ones.
“I’ve been in continued communication with the administration, with
local law enforcement and with advocates in this effort and … (I’m)
becoming more and more disturbed at the lack of transparency and for
continued unwillingness to get answers and concerns that are vital to
protecting Illinois children,” Harriss said.
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Mackenzi Felmlee, pictured here in a 2019 Vandalia High School
yearbook just before she was taken into DCFS custody. (Via Vandalia
High School yearbook)
“It’s clearly the duty of the state to protect children and its care.
And while there will always be cracks in an imperfect system, she fell
through too many, too often.”
Death report withheld
DCFS is required by law to produce a quarterly report to the
legislature, with every death and serious injury to a child in DCFS care
or reported to the child abuse hotline. Those reports should contain
recommendations and findings. More than a year later, the agency has not
released findings or recommendations in the Departmental Report on Death
or Serious Life-Threatening Injury in Mackenzi’s case.
The Illinois Answers Project reported more than 1,200 deaths and more
than 3,000 other cases of serious injury have met the criteria for
incident-specific reports since July 2018, according to data DCFS
provided under an open records request.
McCombie said she hoped Mackenzi’s case could bring Democrats and
Republicans together to problem-solve.
Caseworker hired by DCFS
Capitol News Illinois recently unearthed troubling details about a
caseworker assigned to work with Mackenzi one year prior to her death.
Kurtavia L. White worked for Lutheran Child and Family Services and was
Mackenzi’s caseworker from June 7, 2022, to May 17, 2023, roughly a year
before she died. She was previously arrested for a violent offense, and
eight women filed orders of protection against her in the decade prior
to her working with Mackenzi.
She was hired by DCFS in late 2024 as a child welfare specialist.
In mid-July, White was placed in a role that does not have direct
interaction with children for a matter unrelated to alleged conduct
reported by Capitol News Illinois.
DCFS remains in regular contact with the investigators and prosecutors
regarding Mackenzi’s case, including the July 17 meeting, as well as
before and after that date, Tarczan said.
A Fairview Heights police detective wrote in a search warrant that
during the course of their investigation into Mackenzi’s death, “It was
discovered through the records that case worker Kurtavia White was
copying and pasting notes for home visits, which does not appear to have
correctly documented the visits,” according to an affidavit that was
signed June 23, 2024.
Though White was only one of Mackenzi’s caseworkers, and not the one
overseeing her case when she died, she is the only caseworker Fairview
Heights police named in the search warrant paperwork.
She has not been charged with any wrongdoing in Mackenzi’s case.
Tarczan declined to comment on the allegations.
“Personnel matters involving casework for youth in care are sensitive
matters and require a legal review, particularly when it involves
employees of private providers like Lutheran Child & Family Services and
not DCFS,” Tarczan wrote.
Lutheran Child and Family Services is a state contractor providing
foster care services, including traditional, specialized, and adolescent
placements, and also offers emergency foster care. It has declined to
comment, citing confidentiality.
Tarczan confirmed Tuesday that White went through the proper background
check process and was legally eligible for employment by DCFS.
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. |
