Bayport woman charged with killing Jor'Dynn Duncan linked with other children who died

The Long Island woman charged this week with torturing a 7-year-old girl to death previously lost a 1-year-old son in a separate killing that sparked a child abuse investigation nearly three decades ago, sources familiar with the case told Newsday.

Emily Kelly, now 50, of Bayport, was 21 when her boyfriend admitted killing her infant son, Tyler, in 1997, after becoming enraged because the boy would not stop crying, according to court records. Prosecutors at the time publicly vowed to investigate whether the boy had suffered prior abuse.

It remains unclear what became of that probe, but Kelly was never charged or publicly accused of wrongdoing.

"I can think of nothing more heinous than the brutalization of helpless children," then-Suffolk County District Attorney James Catterson said at the time.

Additionally, sources said a second baby who died in 1994 and is buried with Tyler was the daughter of Kelly, though the circumstances of her death are unclear. 

Now Kelly faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of 7-year-old Jor’Dynn Duncan, a child who prosecutors say was systematically abused after being placed in Kelly’s home by Child Protective Services. 

Evidence of maltreatment

Prosecutors say Kelly tortured Jor'Dynn and caused her Dec. 29 death from a "massive infection" in her punctured colon.

Prosecutors said Jor’Dynn was placed by CPS in the Oak Street home with Kelly, the fiancée of her incarcerated father, on Dec. 4, 2024. Evidence of maltreatment was uncovered as early as Jan. 17, 2025, Assistant District Attorney Dena Rizopoulos told state Supreme Court Justice John Collins at Kelly’s arraignment on a charge of second-degree depraved indifference murder Wednesday. Despite this, Kelly was granted full custody by a Suffolk County Family Court judge in April 2025, the prosecutor said. Jor'Dynn died eight months later. 

Kelly's only prior arrest was a 2023 DWI in Orient, her attorney said in court Wednesday. The Southold Town Justice Court has not yet responded to a Newsday request for records regarding her arrest and the disposition of that case.

Jor’Dynn’s mother, Portia Duncan, 46, previously lost custody of the child, prosecutors said. The girl's father, Derrick Dixon, 51, is serving up to 4 years for attempted burglary in upstate Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

Officials cite probe for not commenting

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office declined to reveal whether law enforcement is taking a fresh look at the decades-old case involving Tyler Kelly in light of his mother’s arrest for allegedly killing Jor'Dynn.

"We do not confirm or deny that we are launching investigations," office spokesperson Emily O’Neill said in an email Friday evening.

Michael Martino, a spokesperson for Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, said Saturday that Romaine would not be available for an interview and that the county "could not comment due to the active investigation" into Kelly.

On Friday, Romaine told News12 that CPS is not to blame for Jor'Dynn's placement with Kelly. 

"It’s not a failure of CPS," Romaine told the station.

"The child’s placement was done by a judge. We’re going to let the DA bring out the case," he said to News12. "Based on the many facts that will come out over many months as this case is prosecuted and the trial takes place, we will act on any information that comes out that suggests to us that improvements can be made."

Prosecutors said Kelly "fed lies" to Dixon about his child, saying she was having psychological issues and was being treated by a therapist. 

Kelly told a 911 operator on the day Jor'Dynn died that she had been suffering a fever and had been vomiting.

Nursing a hangover

Those comments are similar to a statement Thomas gave police the day Tyler Kelly died in May 1997, according to court records obtained by Newsday.

In the sworn statement, the 21-year-old boyfriend told police the couple slept with the child in the living room the night before because he had a fever and was vomiting. Kelly had left to drive Thomas’ mother’s boyfriend to work when the baby kept crying as Thomas, nursing a hangover, continued to sleep, he said.

"Tyler started crying a lot and wouldn’t stop," Thomas told detectives. "The more he cried, the worse I felt."

Thomas shouted at the child to make him stop. When that didn’t work, he threw him down into the crib, he said.

"He hit the corner of the top rail with his chest," Thomas told detectives. "He hit it hard enough to make him bounce off it and land on the floor."

When Kelly returned home, she found the child not breathing, former Assistant District Attorney Emily Constant said at Thomas’ initial arraignment.

Kelly rode with police to the hospital, but Tyler was pronounced dead a short time later, Newsday reported at the time. He died from internal bleeding, prosecutors said.

Thomas, who noted in his statement that he changed his original story when he confessed, pleaded guilty in August 1997 to the same second-degree murder charge Kelly is facing today, and remained in prison until his release in 2020, court and prison records show. His appointed attorney, Richard Stettine, who has since retired, said he could not recall the facts of the case when contacted by telephone Friday.

Siblings share family grave

Tyler Kelly, who was born Oct. 24, 1995, is buried at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale with Kayla Ann Kelly, an infant who died in November 1994, cemetery records show. A source close to the family said Kayla also was Kelly’s child, but she did not know the circumstances of her death. Kelly turned 18 years old in 1994.

Asked about the other children Friday, Kelly’s hired defense attorney John LoTurco said he would not comment until speaking with his client.

LoTurco said in court earlier this week that Kelly comes from a law enforcement family, with her father having served in the Nassau County Police Department and an uncle in the New York Police Department, and she maintains her innocence in connection with Jor’Dynn’s death.

"We are confident that when the evidence is fully presented, Emily will be exonerated," LoTurco said in a statement following her arraignment. The attorney said Jor’Dynn had psychological struggles following her placement in foster care and engaged in self-harm.

Assistant district attorneys Rizopoulos and Melissa Grier told Collins that a police investigation revealed the claims of Jor'Dynn struggling with mental health issues were unfounded. The prosecutors said Bayport-Blue Point school officials described the girl as bright and happy, but noted she was often absent from school, missing 40 days in four months in 2025. 

Autopsy results

Rizopoulos said investigators found Kelly never took her to see healthcare professionals in the year she had custody of the child. An autopsy revealed Jor’Dynn had stab wounds on her backside and colon, leading to the infection, prosecutors said.

She suffered at least 90 injuries in the 48 hours before her death, they said.

Rizopoulos and Grier told the judge text messages between Kelly and daughter Elyssa Seymore, 24, show the two discussed the abuse and ways to hide it from school officials. Seymore is also charged with unlawful imprisonment for times in which Jor’Dynn was allegedly tied up in a bathtub inside the home earlier last year.

Kelly’s mother, Barbara Renner, 75, is charged with manslaughter in connection with Jor’Dynn’s death. Prosecutors said video evidence uncovered in the investigation shows Renner in the bathtub with the visibly injured child the night before she died.

Renner and Seymore have also pleaded not guilty.

Court records show Kelly’s only other child, Kendrick Seymore Jr., 25, of Coram, also is incarcerated with three pending murder charges. Federal prosecutors with the Eastern District of New York have alleged an armed Seymore, a known Bloods gang member, entered the Farmingville apartment of 31-year-old Richard Castano to rob him in July 2021, when he shot and killed Castano, Diamond Schick, 24, also of Farmingville, and Nyasia Knox, 20, of Georgia. A 1-year old child, who was in the apartment at the time of the alleged triple murder, was unharmed.

Federal prosecutors announced in February their intent to seek the death penalty if Kendrick Seymore is convicted in any of the three killings.

Kelly is facing a maximum sentence of 25 years to life if convicted in Jor’Dynn’s death.

Bankruptcy court records show Kelly worked for a residential services company serving disabled individuals in 2004. Additional court records show she rented restaurant space in Coram in 2017, but stopped paying the rent after several months. A second bankruptcy filing shows that by 2019, she was collecting a Social Security disability check of just over $1,000 per month.

LoTurco said in court that his client was declared disabled after being diagnosed with lupus.

Kelly is being held at the Suffolk County jail and is due back in court June 23.

Newsday's Payton Guion contributed to this story.