Uniontown, Pa. — Prosecutors in Fayette County have charged two more adults in the case of a 9-year-old foster child whose body was found in the Youghiogheny River in September 2025, saying the girl “endured prolonged, systemic torture in that home that would have been obvious to anyone.” District Attorney Mike Aubele announced in April 2026 that the girl’s grandmother, a mandated reporter, and a family friend who helped care for the children now face child-endangerment charges.
Theresa Marie Shipley, 63, is charged with endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person and failing to report suspected child abuse; she works as a mental health aide at Highlands Hospital and is a mandated reporter, according to the report. Sandra Lynn Umensetter, 51, is charged with endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person. Aubele said cellphone data showed both women cared for the children multiple times in the months before the girl died. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
These two defendants were present and supervised the children while the abuse occurred.
Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele
Foster mother Kourtney Malinda Eutsey, 31, and her wife, Sarah Ann Shipley, 35, were charged with homicide in September 2025. An autopsy found the girl died from malnourishment and neglect along with blunt force trauma to her head, neck, torso and extremities, Aubele said. A 7-year-old in the home was hospitalized with similar injuries, and a boy removed from the home was treated for what a doctor called “deliberate and chronic neglect.”
How the case began
In the original complaint, Eutsey faced charges of criminal homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of children, abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence and concealing the death of a child, WPXI reported. She was denied bond and is held in the Fayette County Prison. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
A missing-child search that wasn’t
Police were called around 12:41 p.m. on a Wednesday in early September 2025 after the girl was reported missing from a home on Third Street in Dunbar. Volunteers and law enforcement searched through the night. Around 3:30 a.m. the next day, her body was found partially submerged in the river near Smithton, in neighboring Westmoreland County.
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Police say the foster parents reported the girl missing even though they knew where she was. According to the criminal complaint as reported by WPXI, Eutsey told investigators the child vomited, choked and died the night before, and that she did not call 911 because she feared getting in trouble over a burn on the girl’s back and her thin condition. A child in the home told police the girl had been killed and put in a tote, according to the complaint.
It’s very apparent that this girl suffered.
Fayette County District Attorney Michael Aubele, to WPXI
Aubele said Eutsey misled investigators and withheld information during the search and that more charges were expected. The complaint also alleges that Eutsey’s wife, who was also caring for the children, punched another child in the face after that child witnessed abuse. She had not been charged as of the initial reports.
The children in the home
The couple lived with the girl, her three biological siblings and their own child, according to WPXI. Fayette County Children and Youth Services responded to the home, interviewed the children and removed all of the other children. Aubele initially described Eutsey as the girl’s adoptive mother before referring to her as a foster parent, and WPXI noted the correction.
The girl’s biological mother told WPXI she had made mistakes and had left her children with family while she got back on her feet, and that she had not been allowed contact with them. She searched for her daughter for 13 hours before learning the next morning that the girl had never been missing.
She didn’t deserve the abuse, the malnourishment, any of it.
The girl’s mother, to WPXI
What the agency hasn’t said
None of the reports identifies which agency approved the placement or monitored it after she began living with relatives in 2019, when caseworkers last saw her, or whether anyone noticed she was losing weight. A child does not become visibly malnourished and burned overnight. Those answers sit in county and state records that Pennsylvania releases only in limited form, through child fatality reviews that can take months.
This is the core problem families face: once the state places a child, the parent is shut out while the system’s own visits become the only safeguard. When those visits fail, a parent may learn what happened only from a prosecutor. FAN’s guide to termination of parental rights explains how parents lose contact in the first place.
Key facts
- April 2026: the girl’s grandmother, Theresa Marie Shipley, 63, a mandated reporter, and family friend Sandra Lynn Umensetter, 51, were charged with endangering the welfare of children.
- Autopsy: malnourishment, neglect and blunt force trauma; a 7-year-old and a boy in the home were also seriously harmed, the DA said.
- A 9-year-old foster child was reported missing from a Dunbar, Fayette County, home in early September 2025.
- Her body was found in the Youghiogheny River near Smithton hours later; police say the foster parents knew where she was.
- Foster mother Kourtney Malinda Eutsey, 31, and her wife Sarah Ann Shipley, 35, are charged with homicide.
- DA Michael Aubele said the girl was malnourished, with bruises and cigarette burns.
- Fayette County Children and Youth Services removed the other children from the home.
- The girl’s mother said she had not been allowed contact with her children.
Sources
- Meigs Independent Press — 2 more women charged after 9-year-old girl’s abused body found in river, DA says (2026-04-22)
- CBS News Pittsburgh — 2nd woman charged in death of missing Fayette County 9-year-old (2025-09-05)
- WPXI — Woman accused of killing foster daughter moved to separate prison (2025-09-12)
- WPXI — 9-year-old girl reported missing in Fayette County found dead, foster mother charged with homicide (2025-09-04)
- WWNY (WPXI via CNN Newsource) — Foster mother charged in death of 9-year-old who was found in river (2025-09-05)
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