West Virginia mother sentenced in death of emaciated daughter

A West Virginia woman was sentenced to up to life in prison Wednesday in the death of her teenage daughter whose emaciated body was found at their home in a case that prompted scrutiny of the state’s overwhelmed child welfare system.

Julie Miller will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in the April 2024 death of Kyneddi Miller.

A criminal complaint said that the 14-year-old girl had an eating disorder and that Julie Walker had not sought medical care for her daughter in at least four years. Boone County Prosecutor Dan Holstein said Kyneddi Miller spent the last several days of her life alone on a bathroom floor and weighed 58 pounds (26 kilograms).

“This child literally starved to death,” Boone County Circuit Judge Stacy Nowicki-Eldridge said during the sentencing. “No child should ever have to go through that.”

Julie Miller, 51, pleaded guilty in November to death of a child by parent, guardian or custodian.

Two of the girl’s grandparents lived at the home in Morrisvale. Jerry Stone was found incompetent to stand trial due to declining cognitive ability while Donna Stone faces trial next month on a charge of child neglect resulting in death.

A federal audit released in November that was prompted by the girl’s death found the state didn’t comply with requirements for responding to reports of child abuse and neglect, including failing in most cases to interview children or adults or assess immediate safety risks.

The death also prompted a state investigation into whether law enforcement and child protective services could have intervened. The state Department of Human Services now requires potential abuse and neglect cases to be referred to an intake telephone number so they can be formally documented.

Several bills have been introduced during the current legislative session aimed at improving the state’s child welfare system. Gov. Patrick Morrisey vowed last year to release results of child welfare investigations that previously were withheld from the public.

In June 2024, Brian Abraham, the chief of staff for then-Republican Gov. Jim Justice, said state police were summoned to check on the girl in March 2023 but found no indication that she had been abused. A trooper then made an informal suggestion to the local human services office that she might have needed mental health resources.

But no follow-up checks were made, according to Abraham. The trooper indicated that the girl had appeared healthy to him but she said anxiety about being around people due to COVID-19 caused her not to want to leave her home. Kyneddi Miller last attended public school in 2021 and was being homeschooled at the time of her death.

Under state code, parents of homeschooled students are required to conduct annual academic assessments but only have to submit them to the state after the third, fifth, eighth and 11th grades. Failure to report assessments can result in a child being terminated from the homeschool program and a county taking truancy action.

State records indicate the mother never turned in the required assessments for her daughter, local media reported.