A caseworker assigned to monitor Illinois foster child Mackenzi Felmlee — who later died in May 2024 — had a troubling past, including an arrest for a violent crime and orders of protection filed against her by eight women for alleged threats, harassment and abuse, court documents show.
Kurtavia White, a former Lutheran Child and Family Services caseworker, was arrested a decade before Mackenzi’s death for her involvement in a Metro East strip club brawl that left the victim, a dancer at the club, with eight staples in her head, court records show. She also was accused of retaliating against the woman by posting nude photos of her on social media.
Mackenzi, 18, died May 11, 2024, after being found unconscious and struggling to breathe at the bottom of the stairs in her Fairview Heights, Illinois, foster home. A search warrant application signed by a Fairview Heights police detective in the investigation of Mackenzi’s death also alleges that White failed to properly document home visits with the teen.
“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,” an affidavit read that was signed June 23, 2024, prior to the arrest of Mackenzi’s foster mother, Shemeka Williams, and Williams’ mother, Cornelia Reid.
Williams and Reid were indicted on charges of first-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated domestic battery, intimidation, unlawful restraint and domestic battery in connection with Mackenzi’s death.
White has not been charged or arrested in relation to Mackenzi’s death and could not be reached for comment.
By late last year, following Mackenzi’s death, White had a new job: The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services hired her as a child welfare specialist with an annual salary of $75,000, state comptroller records show.
Lutheran Child and Family Services, which is a contractor of DCFS, declined to provide comment for this story. DCFS could not provide immediate comment.
A troubling past
For more than a decade before Mackenzi’s death, multiple women accused White of threatening them, bullying them online, and filing false reports with police and child services. One woman alleged that a false report filed by White led to her child — who suffered from sickle cell anemia — being removed from her custody. “He suffered and was very traumatized behind this,” she stated in a 2019 order of protection petition.
In 2020, White was charged with violating an order of protection by attempting to initiate a fight with the same woman. The case was later dropped after a series of court continuances.
White was the subject of 11 requests for orders of protection by eight women in St. Clair and Madison counties in southern Illinois. In one 2015 case, a woman working as a dancer claimed White attacked her at the Metro East strip club Bottoms Up, leading to White being charged with three felonies. The woman alleged in court documents in her order of protection case that White later pleaded guilty to two felonies and received probation.
Although no court record exists, a Belleville News-Democrat police blotter dated Dec. 22, 2015, reported on White’s arrest. Illinois law allows certain convictions to be sealed or expunged under specific conditions.
The same woman claimed in her court case that White continued to harass her on social media, bragging about the assault and posting nude photos of her online even after her conviction, according to a filing in the order of protection case.
As recently as Oct. 23, 2024 — five months after Mackenzi’s death — another woman sought an order of protection, alleging White encouraged her sister to throw a brick at the woman’s car. Following a court hearing, she claimed White and her sister threatened her in the courthouse hallway, the woman alleged in court documents.
White later filed for an order of protection herself, claiming the woman had threatened her and caused concern at her DCFS workplace.
“They became worried and started having security escort me out of the building due to continuous threats,” White wrote in her petition.
While DCFS requires background checks for its employees, it’s unclear what the agency reviewed prior to hiring White. However, in a July 2023 letter, the DCFS Office of the Inspector General requested records on six orders of protection cases involving White, stating the agency was “attempting to determine if Ms. Kurtavia White is a risk to children.”
New details emerge
While DCFS has yet to issue a report on Mackenzi’s death, despite a state law requiring it to do so, seven search warrant applications were released to Capitol News Illinois last week detailing a year-long investigation by Fairview Heights Police.
Police Chief Steve Johnson said he could not comment on specifics, citing the ongoing investigation, but offered: “Bringing justice for this little girl is paramount. We will not stop until all those accountable are brought before a court.”
White was the only caseworker listed in any of the seven search warrant applications. DCFS has refused to identify any other workers involved in Mackenzi case. In addition to identifying White as a caseworker who worked on Mackenzi’s case, the search warrants revealed disturbing new information about the morning Mackenzi was found unconscious and not breathing at the bottom of a staircase at her foster home around 2:30 a.m. on May 11. When officers arrived, they observed visible bruises and abrasions on her body.
Her foster mother, Shemeka Williams, claimed she found Mackenzi unresponsive in bed and tried, with Reid’s help, to carry her downstairs to take her to the hospital. Williams told police Mackenzi threw herself down the stairs. However, police later uncovered two disturbing videos taken on Williams’ phone before the 911 call showing Mackenzi moaning in pain at the bottom of the stairs and appearing unable to move.
In one video that police said was recorded by Williams’ 15-year-old biological daughter, Williams can be seen mocking Mackenzi, suggesting she was pretending to be injured. Williams pulls Mackenzi upright by her shirt, only for her to slump back down. Blood is visible on the tile floor. The video ends with Williams laughing and saying, “It was hurting them damn legs.”
Police said another video recorded about 30 minutes before police arrived shows Mackenzi lying on her right side with her mouth wrapped around the metal railing of the steps.
“Mackenzi appears to be biting the metal railing while she is moaning,” Fairview Heights Detective Hannah Millington wrote in her affidavit.
These are believed to be the final images taken of Mackenzi alive.
Williams later told police that Mackenzi had a history of bipolar disorder, self-harm and bulimia, and that her siblings, who lived in other foster homes, didn’t want to see her. An inspector general short report on Mackenzi’s death contradicted this, stating Mackenzi no longer wished to see them.
Williams claimed Mackenzi opted for homeschooling due to bullying at Belleville East High School. School records show prior to leaving traditional school that she was frequently truant, missing 25% of school days, prosecutors have said. Officials from her former school district and regional office of education declined to speak on the matter, citing privacy laws.
For its part, DCFS continues to investigate the “educational components” in Mackenzi’s case, according to DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan. She noted DCFS policy that state wards are expected to be enrolled in school until they reach age 18, or age 21 if they are receiving special education services.
‘A drastic change’
Mackenzi turned 18 on July 13, 2023 — almost a year before her death. White was the girl’s caseworker from Jun 7, 2022, to May 17, 2023 — two months before Mackenzi turned 18.
Although Mackenzi technically had aged out of foster care, she remained in specialized foster care for youth with emotional and behavioral needs, according to DCFS.
Police said photos recovered from Williams’ phone show a stark transformation in Mackenzi’s condition — from a happy, healthy 15-year-old who was an honor student to an emaciated and fearful young woman three years later. In later photos, she appears depressed, thin and unkempt.
Police also discovered videos of Williams yelling at Mackenzi, forcing her to wear soiled underwear on her face and making her stand for long periods. One photo from May 1, shortly before her death, shows Mackenzi with a swollen, bruised face.
“Mackenzi’s appearance shows a drastic change from April 2020 to show significant weight loss and lack of hygiene,” the affidavit stated.
There were other pictures and videos, too, police said, including Williams yelling at Mackenzi, forcing her to stand against a wall, wearing a feces-soiled diaper on her face.
In text messages on May 3, 2024, Williams tells Reid, “I’m not getting in trouble for her and all the bruises on her. I have (my daughter) to think about, I would be in trouble.”
Other videos showed Mackenzi being beaten with a belt and begging not to be hurt.
An unidentified caseworker visited the just two days before Mackenzi’s death, according to an inspector general’s report regarding Mackenzi’s case. That caseworker was not White, a DCFS spokesperson said Monday night. Under DCFS policies, caseworkers assigned to Mackenzi’s case should have visited Mackenzi three times a month — at least once in her foster home. DCFS has refused to release those records or any timeline related to department records related to Mackenzi’s care.
Dr. Gershom Norfleet, the forensic pathologist who performed Mackenzi’s autopsy, documented extensive bruising, including on both thighs, breasts, and a deep cut on her shin. He also found a 2-centimeter blood clot in her lungs, likely, he surmised, caused by trauma and worsened by poor nutrition and immobility.
Despite Williams’ claims of bulimia, Norfleet found no signs of tooth erosion common in the disease.
At the time of Mackenzi’s autopsy, she weighed just 90 pounds.
Another doctor consulted by police, a hematologist, confirmed the blood clot could have been treated with medication — if Mackenzi had received medical attention sooner. Instead, police believe Williams and Reid waited more than an hour after finding her unresponsive, spending that time recording her final moments.
As part of their investigation, Fairview Heights police also interviewed other foster children who had lived with Williams, reviewed DCFS reports, and uncovered prior incidents of abuse to foster children, including beatings with belts and being forced to stay outside.
These allegations of abuse and neglect against Reid and Williams go back a decade, according to prosecutors. All were unfounded.
No timeline provided
The troubling allegations against the caseworker revealed in court filings related to Mackenzi’s death comes just weeks after DCFS refused to release a timeline the case, stating they would not release details until after Williams’ and Reid’s trial, which could take years.
Under a 1997 Illinois law, DCFS is required to produce a report to the legislature on every child who is a ward of the state who dies or sustains serious injury. The Departmental Report on Death or Serious Life-Threatening Injury is supposed to contain details on what happened and recommendations for administrative or policy changes.
Although the agency does provide a quarterly report of anonymous children and whether they were seriously injured or died, it does not contain findings and recommendations. In the three-month quarter in which Mackenzi died, there were more than 200 children in the report.
“It’s mind boggling,” Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert said, who represents thousands of foster children in Cook County. “I guess we know why DCFS was trying to hide the file and why they didn’t want anyone to know more.”
A DCFS spokesperson has claimed that local prosecutors have requested in writing that the department not release a report as the criminal investigation continues. Capitol News Illinois has filed a public records request seeking correspondence with prosecutors.
For the public, DCFS routinely provides timelines of their contact with children who died in their care, but the agency has rebuffed several requests in Mackenzi’s case.
Golbert questioned why White was hired by DCFS amid an ongoing police investigation in a foster child’s death. DCFS responded it needs more time to respond to questions about White’s hiring.
More transparency and accountability were the intent of the 1997 law, Golbert said. “This case is the very reason for the law,” he said.
While caseworker criminal accountability in child death cases is rare, there is precedent: In 2024, former DCFS worker Carlos Acosta was sentenced to six months in jail for mishandling the case of 5-year-old A.J. Freund in McHenry County.
Acosta was convicted of two counts of child endangerment after being accused of failing to protect A.J. before his death in 2019, despite evidence of repeated abuse and neglect by his parents. This was the first time child endangerment charges against a state welfare caseworker were successfully brought in Illinois.
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.
