2 more women charged during investigation into Fayette County girl's death
Two more people are facing charges after an investigation into the death of a 9-year-old Fayette County girl in September 2025 revealed the women knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it, the Fayette County district attorney announced on Tuesday.
Renesmay Eutsey's grandma, 63-year-old Theresa Marie Shipley, and a family friend, 51-year-old Sandra Lynn Umensetter, are charged with endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person.
Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said Eutsey's autopsy report confirmed she died of malnourishment and neglect, as well as blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso and extremities. A 7-year-old found in the home was hospitalized with injuries similar to the ones that led to Eutsey's death, Aubele said.
The district attorney said an analysis of Shipley and Umensetter's cell phones revealed that the two cared for the children in the home multiple times in the months before Eutsey's death.
"In short, the children in the home were subjected to severe child abuse and neglect over a long period of time," Aubele said in a statement. "These two defendants were present for it and supervised these children during the times they were severely abused; they did nothing to help them."
Renesmay Eutsey's foster mom, Kourtney Eutsey, and her wife, Sarah Shipley, were charged with homicide in the girl's death. The 9-year-old girl's body was found in the Youghiogheny River after police were called to a home on Third Street in Dunbar Borough for reports of a missing child.
According to police, Kourtney Eutsey told officers that Renesmay Eutsey died but she was too afraid to call 911 so she put the body in a bag, drove to the river and dumped the body along the shore bank.
After the girl's death, police said a boy in the home was taken to the hospital for "significant malnourishment." Calling it "torture," police said the doctor told them the boy was suffering from "deliberate and chronic neglect."
"She suffered a very, very long-term systemic torture in the home that would have been evident to anybody that had contact with these children," Aubele said on Tuesday.
In the most recent charges, Theresa Shipley is also facing a count of persons required to report suspected child abuse. She is a mental health aid at Highlands Hospital and is a mandated reporter, according to the criminal complaint.
Theresa Shipley and Umensetter were expected to be arraigned on Tuesday afternoon.