The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for weeks has repeatedly refused to release a timeline detailing its involvement with Mackenzi Felmlee, the 18-year-old who died after being found unresponsive in her Fairview Heights foster home. While the agency has said they were deferring to local prosecutors, the St. Clair County state’s attorney’s office confirmed to Capitol News Illinois this week it does not oppose the release of the information.
In a July 10 email, DCFS spokesperson Heather Tarczan denied requests for the timeline, citing an objection from the office prosecuting Shemeka Williams, Mackenzi’s foster mother, and Williams’ mother, Cornelia Reid.
“At the request of the St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s office and pursuant to DCFS Rule, we have not concluded or closed the DCFS investigation so (as) not to interfere with the criminal investigation and judicial process,” the email stated.
Gov. JB Pritzker, at a July 28 news conference, said it was “kind of a right-wing talking point that we’re withholding information,” echoing the sentiment the department was fulfilling the request of local prosecutors.
DCFS said it had instructions in writing from the state’s attorney’s office that all information related to Mackenzi’s death investigation remain confidential. State law requires that a report of a child’s death be made available, but that information should not be released if it could undermine a criminal investigation.
On June 27, St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney Bernadette Schrempp wrote to Carla Long, DCFS’ Belleville Field Office area and another DCFS employee, Holly Mulvany, that some information could be released.
“My office has no opposition to DCFS releasing information on the youth in your care pursuant to your department protocols, so long as death investigation-related information remains confidential,” Schrempp sent the email on June 27 – a day after Capitol News Illinois requested a timeline of caseworker involvement with Mackenzi.
Tarczan refused the request the same day it was made, stating, “We won’t have a timeline to share until after a trial takes place.”
On Wednesday, Assistant State’s Attorney Chris Allen, who serves as the office spokesperson, further clarified prosecutors’ position in an email to Capitol News Illinois.
“We do not oppose the release of any of this information,” he said in an email, later clarifying the office had “no objection to the timeline” being released.
Mackenzi’s death
Mackenzi died May 11, 2024, in a Metro East hospital after she found at the bottom of the stairs in her foster home. Doctors said she died from a blood clot to her lungs, aggravated by trauma and dehydration.
Her caregivers, Williams and Reid, were charged last month in Mackenzi’s death and remain in the St. Clair County Jail.
While DCFS officials have provided limited answers related to Mackenzi’s case, they have denied requests for a timeline that would detail the agency’s contact with the child and any abuse and neglect investigations regarding Mackenzi and the foster home.
Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, of Savanna, said she is troubled by the lack of transparency in deaths of DCFS wards like Mackenzi.
“It's, you know, a case like this, when a child is in our care and is killed under our care. And you hear about it, people are horrified, and then it dies down. Nobody's talking about it at DCFS. And then there's another one and then rinse and repeat,” McCombie told Capitol News Illinois on Wednesday.
State Sen. Erica Harriss, R-Glen Carbon, who represents the district where Mackenzi’s foster home is located, said her primary concern is justice for Mackenzi and her loved ones.
“I've been in continued communication with the administration, with local law enforcement and with advocates in this effort and ... (I’m) becoming more and more disturbed at the lack of transparency and for continued unwillingness to get answers and concerns that are vital to protecting Illinois children,” Harriss said.
“It's clearly the duty of the state to protect children and its care. And while there will always be cracks in an imperfect system, she fell through too many, too often.”
Death report withheld
DCFS is required by law to produce a quarterly report to the legislature, with every death and serious injury to a child in DCFS care or reported to the child abuse hotline. Those reports should contain recommendations and findings. More than a year later, the agency has not released findings or recommendations in the Departmental Report on Death or Serious Life-Threatening Injury in Mackenzi’s case.
The Illinois Answers Project reported more than 1,200 deaths and more than 3,000 other cases of serious injury have met the criteria for incident-specific reports since July 2018, according to data DCFS provided under an open records request.
McCombie said she hoped Mackenzi’s case could bring Democrats and Republicans together to problem-solve.
Caseworker hired by DCFS
Capitol News Illinois recently unearthed troubling details about a caseworker assigned to work with Mackenzi one year prior to her death. Kurtavia L. White worked for Lutheran Child and Family Services and was Mackenzi’s caseworker from June 7, 2022, to May 17, 2023, roughly a year before she died. She was previously arrested for a violent offense, and eight women filed orders of protection against her in the decade prior to her working with Mackenzi.
She was hired by DCFS in late 2024 as a child welfare specialist.
In mid-July, White was placed in a role that does not have direct interaction with children for a matter unrelated to alleged conduct reported by Capitol News Illinois.
DCFS remains in regular contact with the investigators and prosecutors regarding Mackenzi’s case, including the July 17 meeting, as well as before and after that date, Tarczan said.
A Fairview Heights police detective wrote in a search warrant that during the course of their investigation into Mackenzi’s death, “It was discovered through the records that case worker Kurtavia White was copying and pasting notes for home visits, which does not appear to have correctly documented the visits,” according to an affidavit that was signed June 23, 2024.
Though White was only one of Mackenzi’s caseworkers, and not the one overseeing her case when she died, she is the only caseworker Fairview Heights police named in the search warrant paperwork.
She has not been charged with any wrongdoing in Mackenzi’s case.
Tarczan declined to comment on the allegations.
“Personnel matters involving casework for youth in care are sensitive matters and require a legal review, particularly when it involves employees of private providers like Lutheran Child & Family Services and not DCFS,” Tarczan wrote.
Lutheran Child and Family Services is a state contractor providing foster care services, including traditional, specialized, and adolescent placements, and also offers emergency foster care. It has declined to comment, citing confidentiality.
Tarczan confirmed Tuesday that White went through the proper background check process and was legally eligible for employment by DCFS.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
