KEITH CASSIDY Jr - 2 yo (2008)/ Charged: Parents; Kathleen and Keith Cassidy - Jackson MS

Jackson police are investigating the death of a child believed to be killed by his parents two years ago.

Wednesday officers and detectives searched the property of a Lee Street home where the remains were found.

The JPD Crime Scene Van left the house at
3685 Lee Street shortly before 6 p.m. after a day long investigation
into the death of Keith Cassidy, Jr. who police say would have been five
years old.

According to Jackson police, concerned family members informed them that the child had been missing.

He belonged to 39-year-old Keith Cassidy,
Sr., who is serving a 22-year sentence at MDOC for drug possession and
31-year-old Kathleen H. Cassidy.

Detectives said she gave birth to five children, and one is missing.

One neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said she is friends with the family who had five children.

"I knew that family, but I don't want to
comment.  That's all I can say, no comment, and I sympathize with
whatever went on but no comment," said the unidentified Lee Street
resident.

Police said they believe Keith junior was killed in 2008 when he was two years old.

They said his remains were placed in a metal barrel and burned.

Wednesday evening the crime scene van was backed up to an aluminum shed on the property.

Investigators concentrated much of their search in the back of the home where they collected evidence.

Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham Stewart
said she received from police a small paper bag with what appear to be
little pieces of bones.

She must now confirm if they are bones and if they are indeed human.

The coroner said there was no skull, and she received nothing intact.

JPD Officer Colendula Green said Kathleen
Cassidy was questioned at police headquarters Tuesday night then was
arrested and charged with capital murder.

Authorities said the incarcerated father will also face capital murder charges.

No one at the home would comment.

According to Officer Green, the property owner said Kathleen Cassidy is still making rental payments and resides at the home

Green said the Cassidy's other four children are with relatives.

She is scheduled to make her initial appearance Thursday at 9 a.m. in Jackson Municipal Court.

The suspected remains of a missing 2-year-old boy were discovered
Wednesday near his south Jackson home, and his parents are facing a
capital murder charge in his death.
Police spent hours searching the backyard of 3685 Lee Drive and a
nearby ditch collecting evidence, including charred bone fragments,
Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said.
The remains are believed to be those of Keith Cassidy Jr., who
has been missing since 2007 or 2008, authorities said.Kathleen
Cassidy, Keith's 31-year-old mother, was charged after being questioned
late Tuesday night at police headquarters, police spokeswoman Colendula
Green said.His father, Keith Cassidy, 38, was charged later. Since April, he has been
serving a 22-year sentence for cocaine possession in Hinds County.
Concerned family members prompted detectives' involvement about the missing child,
police said.Detectives believe the child was killed in 2008 and
his body was placed in a metal barrel and set on fire.Kathleen
Cassidy has four other children and had concealed the child's
whereabouts, although Green said police are unsure exactly how.Kathleen
Cassidy is being held in the Hinds County Detention Center without
bond. She is expected to have an initial appearance in Jackson Municipal
Court today, Green said.The other four children are staying with family members,
Green said.Grisham-Stewart said DNA will be used to confirm whether the remains are those of Keith Cassidy Jr.
"This is not a full skeleton," Grisham-Stewart said. "We're talking burned,
small pieces that have been subjected to the elements for years."Monique
Washington, who lives across the street from Kathleen Cassidy, said her
children and the Cassidy children play with each other everyday. Their
homes are across from Lee Elementary school, where their children go to
school.She said the two families became friends when they both moved to the neighborhood
in 2007. Kathleen Cassidy's oldest child is 13, she said."The
first time we met was on Halloween, I'll never forget it. I told her I
had three kids and she said she had five," Washington said. "She said
one of her boys was at a center in Minnesota because he had a problem
with his brain and she would visit him from time to time. After that
day, she never mentioned him again."
Kathleen Cassidy told Washington the boy had a twin sister.
Washington said she watched as detectives combed through the dirt
along the ravine on Wednesday. She recalls Cassidy's husband telling the
kids to keep away from a dirt pile near where the remains were found.She
said a number of her neighbors remember the winter the Cassidys were
burning something in the barrel. None of those neighbors wanted to
comment on the record."I asked my boy today if he remembers seeing a fifth kid," Washington
said. "He said, 'Twin? We saw him once, but after that we didn't see him no more.' "

The stepfather of a Jackson woman charged with capital murder in the
disappearance of her then-2-year-old son said she told him the child was
living with one of her husband's relatives.
"About five or six months ago we asked about the child, and she said
the child was with Keith's sister," Carnell Brown said Thursday.Police
announced Wednesday that they had found the child's remains near his
home and had charged Kathleen Cassidy and her husband, Keith, in his
death.A neighbor, however, has said Kathleen Cassidy told her one of her boys was out of state.Police believe Keith Cassidy Jr. has been dead since 2008, and his body was burned in a metal barrel outside 3685 Lee Drive.Kathleen Cassidy, 31, was in Jackson Municipal Court on Thursday morning for an initial appearance.When asked by Judge Henry Clay if she had a job, Cassidy replied, "No."When asked if she had a lawyer or needed one appointed, Cassidy seemingly was uncertain.In response to Clay's question, one of Cassidy's relatives said family members would try to hire an attorney.Cassidy's family members wouldn't comment after leaving the courtroom.Jackson
Police Department spokeswoman Colendula Green did not know when Keith
Cassidy Sr. would have his initial court appearance.Keith Cassidy, 38, is in prison serving a 22-year sentence for drug possession with the intent to distribute.The Mississippi Department of Corrections' website shows he is housed at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl.Family members came forward and reported the child missing.Brown
discussed the charge against his stepdaughter and her husband in a
telephone interview after the court proceeding Thursday.Brown confirmed the missing child has a twin sister."We would tell Kathleen they (the twins) needed to be raised together," Brown said.Keith Jr. was one of Kathleen Cassidy's five children; three are with Keith Cassidy.Brown said he once called the Mississippi Department of Human Services about neglect of one of his stepdaughter's children.
But he said the child was given back to the Cassidys.
"We cannot comment on an ongoing investigation nor can we confirm or
deny any prior involvement with the family due to confidentiality
statutes," DHS spokeswoman Julia Bryan said.On Wednesday, bone fragments police suspect could be the child's were discovered behind the parents' south Jackson home.Officers spent hours searching the backyard of the home at 3685 Lee Drive and a nearby ditch and collecting evidence.On
Thursday, Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said an
anthropologist from Mississippi State University will come in Monday to
help authorities find a good bone piece from which DNA can be extracted
to determine whether the remains are the missing child's.In her decade as coroner, Grisham-Stewart said "we have excavated (human) bones but never as badly burned and exposed as these."Grisham-Stewart said she doesn't have an estimated timeframe for when the entire process will be concluded.Neighbor
Monique Washington said her family and the Cassidys moved into the
south Jackson neighborhood in 2007 and Kathleen Cassidy told her she had
five children.After telling her that, she told her one of the boys "was at a center in Minnesota because he had a problem with his brain."Washington said Cassidy never mentioned the child again.

Hinds prosecutors still investigating parents in child's death
Sept 21 2010
JACKSON — Prosecutors – despite the lack of DNA evidence – will continue to pursue a capital murder charge against the parents of a missing 2-year-old Jackson boy.
Charred bone fragments were found Aug. 11 near the south Jackson home of Kathleen and Keith Cassidy. Authorities suspect it's their son, Keith Jr.
The bone fragments were so badly burnt that officials could not collect a DNA sample, Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart said.
"There was not enough material to look within the fragments to perform the DNA test," Grisham-Stewart said.
Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith said the Cassidy case is still being investigated by Jackson police.
"There is other circumstantial evidence that may prove what happened," Smith said. "We would like DNA evidence whenever we can get it, but in this particular case, we may be able to move forward without it. Every murder conviction is not the result of DNA evidence."
Authorities also have family members who can confirm the child was missing.
Carnell Brown, the stepfather of Kathleen Cassidy, said he asked about Keith Jr. about six months ago and was told by his daughter that the child, who has a twin sister, was with Keith Cassidy's sister.
Kathleen Cassidy, 31, is being held at the Hinds County Detention Center without bond. Keith Cassidy, 38, is in prison serving a 22-year sentence for drug possession with intent to distribute.
Police discovered the remains in the backyard of Kathleen Cassidy's home at 3685 Lee Drive and a nearby ditch. Authorities allege Keith Jr.'s body was placed in a metal barrel and burned about two years ago.
Because the fragments were so burnt and exposed to the elements, officials first needed to determine if they were human, which they did. Grisham-Stewart described the remains as "almost ash" and the largest pieces were about an inch long.
[...]
Dr. Bo Scales of Scales Biological Laboratory in Brandon has been conducting DNA tests since 1989. Of nearly 100 cases where he needed to extract DNA from burnt bone fragments, only about eight were burned so badly that DNA extraction was impossible, he said
Let's say you wanted to chain a dog to a fence. You need every link intact to make a chain," Scales said. "What heat does is destroy some of those links."
To collect DNA from a bone, the bone is ground into powder and a chemical is added to remove the bone's calcium and make the powder soft. Once soft, another chemical is used to retrieve the DNA inside the nucleus. Labs can extract bone fragments as small as a grape, Scales said. But even larger bone fragments subjected to extremely high temperatures may not yield a DNA sample, he said.
A similar case where bone fragments were too burnt to collect DNA involves a Meridian homicide in August. Daniel Wood, 41, is charged with murder in the death of his mother, Delores Wood of Meridian.
Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler III said Daniel Wood allegedly set his mother on fire after killing her in a dispute. Cobler said Daniel Wood allegedy used a flammable liquid to burn her, then continued to burn items over her body for several days.
In 27 years as the deputy coroner and coroner, Cobler said he has never seen a case where DNA could not be extracted from charred remains until the Wood case.
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