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Investigators exhumed the body of a 7-year-old Long Island girl whose guardian, Emily Kelly, is charged with murder in her alleged torture death.
An attorney for the girl's mother said Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, that the family authorized Suffolk County authorities to exhume the child's body as prosecutors pursue cases against Kelly, 50, her mother, Barbara Renner, 75, and her daughter, Elyssa Seymore, 24, News 12, ABC7 New York and the New York Post reported. All three have pleaded not guilty.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
An exhumation is an investigative step, not a new charge. The district attorney's office would not say what it is looking for. The allegations already on file are grim: about 90 injuries and abuse prosecutors say Kelly recorded on her own phone. They are still allegations. The mother's lawyer is also lining up a lawsuit against the county and the school district, and that fight over who missed the warning signs is likely to run alongside the criminal case.
The body of a 7-year-old Bayport, New York, girl who prosecutors say was tortured for months before she died has been exhumed, an attorney for the girl's mother said Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, News 12 Long Island, ABC7 New York and the New York Post reported. Attorney Heather M. Palmore said her client, the girl's mother, gave the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office permission to exhume the body as part of the investigation. The New York Post reported the exhumation took place over the summer. Crime Talk Network is not naming the child.
"We don't know why they asked for the exhumation," Palmore told ABC7 New York. "In my experience as a former prosecutor, there may be things or evidence they are looking to uncover." The district attorney's office told News 12 that because the case is open, it had no additional information to provide.
The girl's legal guardian, Emily Kelly, 50, the fiancee of the child's father, was indicted in May on second-degree murder and related charges, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said at the time. Kelly's mother, Barbara Renner, 75, was indicted for second-degree manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, and Kelly's daughter, Elyssa Seymore, 24, for first-degree unlawful imprisonment and related charges. ABC7 New York reported all three pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. Kelly was ordered held on $5 million cash or $10 million bond, the district attorney's office said.
Prosecutors say the girl died on Dec. 29, 2025, after Kelly called 911 to report she was in cardiac arrest. The autopsy found she died of a massive untreated infection caused by sharp-force injuries, and the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office documented about 90 injuries, according to the district attorney's office. Prosecutors allege photos and videos on Kelly's phone and cloud accounts documented prolonged restraint and untreated injuries going back to January 2025, and that the child missed about 40 days of school between January and June 2025 with excuses they say were fabricated. District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney called it "months of alleged systematic cruelty and sadistic abuse, meticulously documented." Those are the allegations in the indictment.
County Child Protective Services placed the girl with Kelly in December 2024, and Kelly gained full custody in April 2025, prosecutors said. The New York Post reported the girl's mother is seeking $250 million in wrongful-death damages from Suffolk County, and ABC7 New York reported that a notice of claim her attorneys filed in July also names the Bayport-Blue Point School District, alleging the county and the district failed to protect the child. Palmore told News 12 she expects a lawsuit to be filed Nov. 9. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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