Jor'Dynn Duncan filings: 7-year-old was left alone at home for a day 6 months before she died

The instructions to ​Jor'Dynn Duncan were made clear on June 14, 2025: The 7-year-old was not to leave her bed that night or the following day, except to use the bathroom, and she could not speak with anyone. Shakes and books were left within reach for nourishment as her appointed caretaker traveled the roughly 80 miles from her home in Bayport to visit the girl’s father at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in upstate Ossining.

"She said she promises she won’t do anything bad," Emily Kelly wrote in a text message explaining her plans to leave the child behind for a day. "I told her I’m going to be recording her on the Alexa and if she does anything wrong I am having the state pick her up and bring her to the group home."

Jor'Dynn never was sent away. Instead, the girl continued to live with Kelly — who was in a relationship with her incarcerated father — Kelly’s aging mother, Barbara Renner, and her adult daughter in the cottage-style home on Oak Street.

Six months later the girl was dead of injuries that are now at the center of criminal charges and a legal showdown.

The allegation of the child being left alone in a room for an entire day was revealed in court records as Suffolk County prosecutors and attorneys for the three women litigate who was ultimately responsible for the child’s care and the injuries that caused her death in December.

 Kelly is seeking dismissal of the depraved indifference murder charge against her and to be tried separately from her mother and daughter.   Renner is seeking to have her manslaughter and child endangerment charges dismissed.

 The recent filings reveal in greater detail what prosecutors call a "dysfunctional family relationship" and shows how the women quickly blamed the girl’s death on "self-harm" due to the trauma of losing contact with her biological mother.

'No legally recognized familial relationship'

An attorney for Renner, 76, argues that prosecutors presented no evidence her client ever abused ​Jor'Dynn or was the type of caregiver who could be held criminally liable for the child’s death.

Danielle Coysh, of Central Islip, wrote in a motion filed in advance of a Friday court conference that Renner had "no legally recognized familial relationship" to the child, whose father was not married to Kelly, 50. She argued that while the child was placed in Kelly’s care in December 2024, prosecutors never presented to a grand jury evidence that Renner had a contractual or voluntary arrangement to care for the child for the year they all lived together.

"The evidence presented to the grand jury in this case demonstrated that Barbara Renner played virtually no role in providing and/or caring for ​Jor'Dynn Duncan," Coysh wrote in the motion filed before State Supreme Court Justice John Collins in Riverhead. "Not a single witness testified to Barbara Renner participating in any matters involving the schooling, supervision, discipline or general welfare of [the child]."

Renner's alleged dementia diagnosis is referenced in the filings though not used as a basis for any of the legal arguments, which include requests for the judge to inspect the grand jury minutes and to suppress statements made to police. 

Coysh declined additional comment this week.

 Attorney Danielle Muscatello, representing Kelly with lead defense counsel John LoTurco, argued in court papers obtained by Newsday Thursday that the evidence presented to the grand jury was "not legally sufficient to establish that [Kelly] acted — or failed to act — with the necessary culpable mental state" to support the second-degree murder charge.

"We strongly contend that the evidence was wholly insufficient to establish that Ms. Kelly acted with depraved indifference resulting in the death of Jor'Dynn Duncan," attorney John LoTurco, of Huntington, said in a statement. "For that reason, we have asked the Court to dismiss the second-degree murder charge."

While prosecutors have not yet responded to Kelly's motion, Assistant District Attorney Dena Rizopoulos countered in a response to the Renner defense filing that the New York Court of Appeals has ruled that in a "modern-day reality, parenting functions are not always performed by a parent," and the scope of who can be "legally charged" with the care of a child is not limited to contracted care.

The prosecutor argued that Renner "supported, educated and cared for ​Jor'Dynn on an ongoing basis." She also said Renner "held herself out" as a grandmother to the girl and shared the upstairs of the home with her.

Rizopoulos said Renner, a retired nurse who identified herself as a "former CPR instructor" on the Dec. 29 911 call reporting ​Jor'Dynn's fatal injuries, failed to secure prompt professional medical attention while video evidence showed her caring for the child in her final hours.

"Renner was a continual and regular presence in the household, she participated in daily care and she self-professed her role as a nurse/caregiver," Rizopoulos wrote. "Renner herself clearly established a duty of care for ​Jor'Dynn — she assumed the role by words and actions."

The prosecutor pointed specifically to four videos recorded around 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 28, about 16 hours before the 911 call was placed, that shows Renner in a sweater and pants seated beside a bathtub caring for ​Jor'Dynn,  who appears "clearly ill," "in pain" and "not clear-minded."

"This whole family loves you even though they get mad at you," prosecutors allege Renner says before kissing the girl in the first of the four videos. "Come here my sweetheart, I need a little girl in my arms, I do, I need a little girl to love and you’re the one. Not just any little girl, I need you, I need you to be my little girl ... give me the hand ... I love you."

Rizopoulos said that in each of the videos, which were recorded within eight minutes of each other, Jor'Dynn is "not responsive."

"She seems barely conscious," the prosecutor wrote.

Grand jury testimony from 30 witnesses

​Jor'Dynn Duncan was pronounced dead at NYU-Langone Hospital in Patchogue at 11:47 a.m. on Dec. 19, roughly 75 minutes after Kelly and Renner alerted first responders to the child’s illness, court records show.

An autopsy performed two days later by Suffolk County Medical Examiner Dr. Odette Hall determined ​Jor'Dynn had a perforated bowel and infected peritoneal cavity, injuries that were just days old at the time of her death. There were nine sharp-force injuries "clustered in and around the anus," including a four-inch wound inside the anus that led to the perforated bowel and infection, according to the filing.

The medical examiner also reported older bruises, scars and contusions on her body and "three to four" bite marks on her right arm, leg and hand.

 Muscatello, in her defense filing on behalf of Kelly, notes that the autopsy reveals the injuries could have been caused by kitchen scissors. The attorney notes that Dr. Hall could not say for certain if Jor'Dynn would have survived had she gotten prompt medical attention.

Muscatello also argues the evidence prosecutors have shared suggests Kelly sought help from her mother and treated her with pain relief medication and an antihistamine, acts "not consistent with a wanton, cruel and callous disregard for her life."

LoTurco said in his statement that he may also seek a change of venue, saying "publicity has significantly prejudiced Ms. Kelly’s ability to obtain a fair trial in Suffolk County."

"These requests reflect our continuing commitment to protecting Ms. Kelly’s rights and ensuring that the proceedings against her are fair and based on legally sufficient evidence," LoTurco said. "We respectfully await the Court’s determination of the pending motion."

Court records show Suffolk detectives first questioned Kelly, Renner and their daughter and granddaughter Elyssa Seymore the day of ​Jor'Dynn's death.

An evidentiary notice filed by prosecutors shows the women made additional statements to law enforcement in January and February.

They were arrested May 20 after being indicted by a grand jury that saw 122 exhibits and heard testimony from 30 witnesses spanning more than 650 pages, court records show.

"So this is how we’re doing this?" records show Kelly told law enforcement the day she was arrested on charges of depraved indifference murder, reckless endangerment, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child. Seymore was charged with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of the child for her role in alleged abuse that occurred months before ​Jor'Dynn's death, according to the indictment.

 Seymore's attorney, Katherine Fernandez, said she intends to file a separate motion on behalf of her client in the coming days. Her case is on the court's calendar for Tuesday.

Among those who testified before the grand jury were teachers, counselors, school nurses and administrators with the Bayport-Blue Point School District. Prosecutors have said school officials described ​Jor'Dynn as a "child that lit up the room."

"Smart. Intelligent. Kind. And very well-behaved," Rizopoulos said of the word’s school officials used to describe ​Jor'Dynn to police.

When officials with the Bayport-Blue Point School District, where ​Jor'Dynn had been enrolled to attend second grade, contacted the family with concerns over 40 absences in six months, Kelly offered different explanations for her absences, prosecutors previously said.

She had illnesses, they reported at times, a death in the family another. Once Kelly said they took a trip to Disney World.

Prosecutors have said none of those claims were true.

A shift in blame

Kelly, Renner and Seymore offered police a different explanation for ​Jor'Dynn's injuries: self-harm.

In statements to police included in court filings obtained by Newsday, including a sworn deposition Kelly gave to police an hour after the girl’s death, the women told investigators ​Jor'Dynn began to have "mental health issues" after losing contact with her biological mother, Portia Duncan, in July 2025.

"She began to exhibit signs of depression," Kelly told police of Jor'Dynn. "She would make herself throw up and began defecating on herself."

Kelly said on one occasion she caught the girl placing a household item "in her rectum."

Even before the child died, Renner told first responders in an interaction captured at 10:40 a.m. by a police body camera that ​Jor'Dynn had "been doing things to hurt herself."

Duncan lost custody of her daughter at 14 months due to failed drug test, according to a notice of claim she filed against Suffolk County, the school district and other entities for allegedly failing to adequately monitor the girl before her death. 

​Jor'Dynn spent most of her childhood in the care of her father’s former wife, Kim Jackson, court records show. She was removed from Jackson’s home in October 2024 after she was found to be spending unsupervised time with Duncan, prosecutors alleged in a summary of the case contained in the recent filings.  Kelly's attorneys state in their recent filing that the removal from Jackson's home came after Jor'Dynn, then 6, witnessed Duncan "break somebody's head open with a baseball bat," citing grand jury testimony. 

Kelly, who is engaged to ​Jor'Dynn's father, Derrick Dixon, obtained full guardianship in the spring of 2025 and told police Duncan "disappeared" from the child’s life after seeing her on Fourth of July and having phone contact with her later that month. Attempts by Newsday to contact Dixon, who was released from prison last month, were unsuccessful.

At a news conference in July, Duncan, who has since been arrested on new misdemeanor drug charges for which she is scheduled to be arraigned later this month, said she had been an addict, but was also "a damn good mother."

"Here I am, supposed to protect my daughter, and leaving her to be protected by Child Protective Services and she wasn’t protected," Duncan told reporters at her lawyer’s office in Melville. Duncan's civil attorney, Heather Palmore, said she had not seen the motions filed in the criminal case and did not offer comment when reached by a Newsday reporter Wednesday. 

Efforts to hide the alleged abuse

Prosecutors, in court appearances and filings, have said the police investigation revealed photographic evidence of alleged abuse by Kelly and Seymore and text messages of them discussing it. The autopsy notes the bite marks on Jor'Dynn's body were not consistent with "self-harm," court records show.

Rizopoulos argued "it is clear" from the investigation that Kelly and Seymore also had concerns about Renner knowing about their "active abuse" of Jor'Dynn but that the woman the girl called "grandma" was "complicit in much of their treatment" of the girl. 

When Kelly visited Dixon last June, leaving Jor'Dynn alone in her bed, Renner knew about the arrangement, the prosecutor alleged.

Rizopoulos said that to some extent the two alleged abusers went to certain lengths to hide the alleged abuse from Renner, including messages suggesting they did not want to leave Jor'Dynn alone with her for fear she might seek help for the girl, though she allegedly never did.

A photo of the girl from July showed her in the bathtub with "scarring on her forehead," her left eye swollen and bruised, and her upper lip also swollen, the prosecutor described.

"I don't want grandma to wake up," Seymore, 24, wrote that day. "She's going to get up soon for church."

A video from that day showed Jor'Dynn naked, kneeling in feces in the bathtub. She's moaning and crying, the prosecutor said.

"Kelly taunted Jor'Dynn, telling her the video was going to be sent to the judge," Rizopoulos wrote, "and that Jor'Dynn was 'outta here.' "

The video was recovered by investigators following the child's death.

All three women remain in custody at the Suffolk County Jail.