Relatives said they tried repeatedly to see 7-year-old Jor’Dynn Duncan in the final days of her life, but the excuses kept coming.

Then came the text message they never imagined.

"I have horrible news," Emily Kelly, of Bayport, wrote on Dec. 30, the day family members hoped to see her, a message shared with Newsday shows. "Yesterday at 3 a.m. Jordynn spiked a very high fever ... she was pronounced dead."

Five months later, family members said they are still haunted by how they said they learned Jor’Dynn died from the woman now charged with murdering her.

Interviews with family members, court records, text messages and allegations outlined by prosecutors paint a portrait of a child who family members say became increasingly isolated after being placed in Kelly’s custody, even as concerns mounted about her well-being in the months before her death as she was allegedly missing school and being withheld from family members who sensed something was wrong with her.

Relatives said their outrage has only deepened because Jor’Dynn was quickly removed from the home where she had spent most of her life and placed with Kelly, the woman prosecutors now accuse of tying her up and torturing her.

Emily Kelly, 50, has been indicted on charges of second-degree murder, unlawful imprisonment, reckless endangerment and other counts in connection with 7-year-old Jor'Dynn's death.

Alisha Case, of Mount Sinai, Jor’Dynn’s godmother and parent of two of her cousins, said the child’s death shocked and devastated family members who had been trying to see her in the final weeks of her life.

Case said her last contact with Jor’Dynn came in the form of a text message thanking her for presents on Christmas Day. She said she tried calling, but never heard back. Four days later, the child was dead.

When they first tried to make plans to see her in December, Kelly, the fiancee of Jor’Dynn’s incarcerated father, said they were going snow tubing and might not be able to attend, Case said. On the morning Jor’Dynn died, Case told Kelly in a text message that time was running short as the girl’s maternal grandmother, Melinda Duncan, and an aunt were heading home to Florida the next day.

"Please make an effort to meet tonight," Case said she pleaded with Kelly on Dec. 29. "You are all welcome to come to my house."

In her message to the child’s grandmother and aunt the following day, Kelly said she gave Jor’Dynn Tylenol at 3 a.m. and sent her back to bed. She said she woke up six hours later moaning and complaining of stomach pain. Kelly told them Jor’Dynn had diarrhea and began vomiting when she tried to wash her up. She ultimately collapsed and stopped breathing, Kelly told the family via text message.

"They are doing an autopsy to determine what happened," Kelly wrote in a message the family shared with Newsday. "I am beside myself and sorry to have to tell you this."

Kelly explained the house was "flooded with detectives and family services," preventing her from telling them sooner.

"I am devastated," she wrote.

The body of 7-year-old Jor'Dynn Duncan is buried in this unmarked grave at Washington Memorial Park in Coram.

Abuse allegations

Kelly, 50, is facing a second-degree murder charge for the alleged abuse prosecutors say led to Jor’Dynn's death on Dec. 29. Suffolk prosecutors said a dozen sharp-force wounds to her backside and colon led to a "massive infection”and caused the child to suffer cardiac arrest.

First responders called to the house at 10:30 that morning never saw Jor’Dynn regain consciousness, Assistant District Attorney Dena Rizopoulos said at Kelly’s May 20 arraignment.

"There were also a total of at least 90 recent injuries all over her body at the time she died," Rizopoulos told State Supreme Court Justice John Collins in Riverhead. "The bulk of those injuries were all inflicted approximately 48 hours or less before her death."

Rizopoulos said in court last week that the bathroom is where much of the alleged abuse occurred, but she said Jor’Dynn and the bathroom floor were "bone dry" when paramedics first arrived following a 911 call placed by Kelly, refuting the claim she was being cleaned up when she collapsed.

The prosecutor said video evidence found through a search warrant for Kelly’s phone showed the girl in the bathtub at 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 28 being "admonished" by Kelly’s mother, Barbara Renner, 75, who is charged with manslaughter in connection with the child’s death.

Barbara Renner, 75, was indicted on a charge of second-degree manslaughter and a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with 7-year-old Jor'Dynn Duncan's death.

"Jor'Dynn's coloring appears off, her skin is muddled, her face is swollen, her eyes are shut," Rizopoulos said. The girl is moaning in the video and can be seen straining to cover herself with a towel, the prosecutor said.

"A total of 16 hours elapsed between those videos and the 911 call when Jor’Dynn Duncan was well beyond hope, and no medical intervention could help," Rizopoulos said.

Legislative review sought

The allegations have led to an outcry this week from Long Island residents grappling to understand how Jor’Dynn could have been placed in the home of her alleged abusers. A Newsday report revealing Kelly lost her own infant son to homicidal domestic violence nearly three decades ago caused an even stronger public reaction. Additionally, sources told Newsday that another baby born to Kelly, named Kayla Ann, died in 1994, when Kelly would have been around 18 years old. An attorney for Kelly said in a prepared statement that Kelly's infant son was killed by an ex-boyfriend and that Kayla Ann was a stillborn death.

A photograph of Jor'Dynn Duncan stands next to her coffin at her funeral.

Suffolk County Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon) on Tuesday called for officials from Child Protective Services and the police department to provide a briefing to lawmakers on Jor’Dynn’s death. A colleague echoed the legislator’s concern.

"A child in our county died, and we have a responsibility, whether or not the county is responsible for it is not the point," Legis. Rebecca Sanin (D-Huntington Station) said at a committee meeting Tuesday. "The point is a child died, and as policymakers we should be bringing people together to do a better job and solve problems."

Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine has declined to talk about the case or any potential separate investigation into the child's death. A spokesperson declined comment for this story.

A judge's order

Family members on both Jor’Dynn’s maternal and paternal sides said in interviews this week that she was removed from her mother’s home as a baby due to a failed drug test administered by probation officers. Her mother, Portia Duncan, 46, of Coram, had prior convictions for drug possession and other offenses when a family court order stripped her of custody.

While family court documents are not public in New York State, a single cover page from a judge’s order shared with Newsday showed Duncan was found through a Child Protective Services petition to have neglected Jor’Dynn when she was 14 months old in May 2019.

Kim Jackson, of Coram, said Jor’Dynn’s father, Derrick Dixon, 51, whom she had previously been married to, asked for her help after the child initially stayed with her mother's friend.

Jackson, who raised two adult daughters, said she had a proper home for the girl. She said she remembered Dixon saying he didn’t want to see his daughter end up in foster care.

"When I looked into that little girl's eyes and she grabbed my legs, I couldn't say no," Jackson recalled.

An undated photograph of Jor'Dynn Duncan.

For more than five years, Jor’Dynn was placed into the custody of Jackson, family members said.

That changed after it was determined the child had contact with her mother during a sleepover in 2024, Jackson said. An effort was made to have Jor’Dynn placed with one of Jackson’s daughters, but Kelly, Dixon’s girlfriend at the time, also sought custody and had his support.

Jackson said the family court system failed her.

"They failed Jor'Dynn too," she said.

The court document shared with Newsday shows Family Court Judge Matthew Hughes modified the child protective order on Nov. 14, 2024. Three weeks later, on Dec. 4, Jor’Dynn was placed with Kelly, prosecutors said in court last week. She was granted full custody in April, eight months before the girl’s death.

Reached by email, Hughes said: "Due to strict rules on judicial ethics, I am not permitted to comment on matters involving family court litigation."

Broken plans, canceled visits

Jackson and Case said opportunities to see Jor’Dynn were scarce in the year she lived with Kelly.

Plans were broken as quickly as they were made, the women said.

At one point, Kelly told the family she couldn’t respond to messages because her phone was broken, Case recalled.

Jor’Dynn continued to miss parties and playdates, with different excuses each time, she said.

"They went to Hersheypark," Case remembered being told one time. "We’ve never seen any photos of that."

One time, when Case planned to bring her children to see their cousin, Kelly said Jor’Dynn had a double eye infection and an oral abscess. They showed up anyway, but Kelly said it was contagious and they should leave.

The next day, Kelly told them she took Jor’Dynn back to the doctor.

Missing from school

Prosecutors said in court last week that in her year under Kelly’s care, Jor’Dynn was never seen by a doctor, despite claims she made to family and school officials, who were concerned about the child’s frequent absences.

Rizopoulos said Kelly blamed approximately 40 absences between January and June on illnesses, a death in the family and vacations, when questioned by administrators in the Bayport-Blue Point school district. Investigators believed those excuses to be lies, the prosecutor said. A school calendar shared in court records show she had just two full days in school in May 2025.

Kelly told detectives Jor’Dynn suffered from psychological issues, that she ate feces, vomited and self-harmed.

"She repeatedly fabricated elaborate stories to shield herself from responsibility," Rizopoulos said.

Text messages between Kelly and daughter Elyssa Seymore, 24, who was charged with unlawful imprisonment, show the alleged abuse Jor'Dynn endured, which prosecutors said included being hit in the face and tied up in the tub.

Elyssa Seymore, 24, was indicted on a charge of first-degree unlawful imprisonment and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with Jor'Dynn Duncan's death.

Kelly's attorney, John LoTurco, of Huntington, has said he's confident his client "will be exonerated." Renner's attorney, Danielle Coysh, has said she has dementia and "no criminal culpability." Seymore's attorney, Katherine Fernandez, has said her client denies the allegations against her relating to a three-day period in July.

LoTurco suggested the injuries might have been the result of self-harm.

Family members said they never saw any evidence of Jor’Dynn harming herself or having bathroom issues. Prosecutors said the self-harm claims are not true.

In a statement Wednesday evening, LoTurco again defended his client against the charges.

"The allegations against our client are just that — allegations — and under our system of justice, she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law," he said, arguing media accounts are attempting to "demonize" his client, who was entrusted with Jor'Dynn's care after a review by family court and CPS.

Case and Jackson said Child Protective Services was aware of family concerns about the girl’s well-being months before her death.

One family member contacted CPS around April 2025 when Jor’Dynn did not show up for a baby shower she was expected to attend, the women said. The family believed Kelly was intentionally keeping Jor’Dynn from seeing her family. When Kelly learned of the complaint, she told the family she would keep them from seeing Jor'Dynn, the women said.

The women recalled the last time they were together with Jor’Dynn was when they took her to see the "Lilo & Stitch" movie in late May 2025.

Jackson said family members now believe the times they couldn’t see Jor’Dynn were likely due to the alleged abuse, which an indictment shows may have began as early as Jan. 17, 2025, six weeks after she was placed in the home.

Jor'Dynn Duncan died on Dec. 29.

Jackson said relatives noticed a change in Jor’Dynn after she was placed with Kelly. They said the well-mannered little girl they knew to dance all day and say her prayers at night had lost a bit of her spark. She wasn’t being kept as neat as in the past, they added, saying her hair wasn’t being done and her appearance had changed.

Text messages shared in court records led investigators to believe Kelly and Seymore tried to hide the abuse. In one exchange, they mentioned Jackson while discussing how the alleged abuse had altered the girl's appearance, in particular her eyes.

"Kim saw it and said that's just her allergies she gets that," Kelly wrote on July 27.

Case said she wishes the girl would have told them what she was allegedly going through when they took her to the movies in May.

"For some reason she didn't," Case said. "I think she was just so afraid."

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