Nov 24, 2025 By Garrett Neese 4 min read

Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele will seek the death penalty against the foster mothers accused of killing 9-year-old Renesmay Eutsey if they are convicted of first-degree murder, he announced Friday afternoon.

Aubele filed notices of aggravating circumstances against Kourtney Eutsey and Sarah Shipley in the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas Friday.

Eutsey, 31, and Sarah Shipley, 35, both of Dunbar, initially reported Renesmay missing on the afternoon of Sept. 4, more than 12 hours after she was last seen by anyone else. Police later noticed inconsistencies in their stories, aided by another of their foster children, who told a family friend and officers she had heard screaming and crying, and later seen the parents carrying Renesmay’s body downstairs in a tote bag.

Eutsey drove officers to the remote spot on the Youghiogheny River where she had dumped the tote bag with Renesmay’s body, weighed down with rocks, troopers said at a preliminary hearing.

Police testified Eutsey told them she believed Renesmay had died as a result of a burn she received in a hot bath that had become infected, and that she hid her body out of fear of losing custody of the other children.

During the hearing, police described several additional wounds on Renesmay’s body, including a cut on the bottom of her chin, and injuries to her eyebrow, legs and feet.

Friday’s notices listed several aggravating circumstances: that while committing the offense, Eutsey and Shipley “knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim,” that the offense was committed by means of torture and that the victim was a child under 12.

Aubele said the “grave risk of death” was to the other children in the house. Eutsey and Shipley also face charges accusing them of abuse and neglect of a 6-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl in the home.

The 6-year-old boy showed signs of what a pediatrician who treated him described as “torture.” When examined after Renesmay’s death, the boy weighed 24 pounds and showed signs of severe malnourishment, according to court records.

Aubele is still awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine how Renesmay died. But based on his conversations with the pathologist and pictures of Renesmay and the other children, he sees clear signs of a pattern of abuse.

“What ended up leading to her death was something that was also likely to happen to the other child,” he said in an interview on Friday.

The surviving children in the home, also including a 2- and 3-year-old, were removed and placed with other parents.

Eutsey and Shipley were ordered to stand trial on all charges after their preliminary hearing last week.

In addition to the first-degree criminal homicide charges, Eutsey and Shipley face several other charges in Renesmay’s case: endangering the welfare of children, aggravated assault, concealing the death of a child, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. Shipley also faces conspiracy charges for each count.

For the alleged abuse and neglect of the two other children, they are charged with aggravated assault and a related conspiracy charge, as well as endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors and simple assault.

If sentenced to death, they would become the first such Fayette County defendants since Patrick Haney, who was convicted in 2014 of fatally beating his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son.

The last execution in Pennsylvania took place in 1999. Former Gov. Tom Wolf implemented a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015, which has continued for the past decade.

Although no executions can be carried out, the death penalty laws are still on the books. As of April, there were 94 inmates on death row in the state.

“I’m hopeful that we’re going to have a governor that is going to carry out death sentences,” Aubele said. “And while it is still an available punishment for the most severe cases, we will pursue it in the most severe cases. This is one of those cases.”