October 13, 2025 • 48 mins
In October 2011, a little girl was found unresponsive in a home in Meeker, Oklahoma. When detectives looked into the family’s history, what they found would horrify them, and lead to sweeping changes in how children are protected in the state.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Maker is a small town of around one thousand residents,
nestled about forty five miles east of Oklahoma City in
the heart of rural Oklahoma. It was founded in the
early nineteen hundreds and named after the Maker family. This
quiet community came to life when the railroad depot was
built on Julian Maker's property, with the generous landowner donating
(01:12):
the very ground that would become the town site. It's
the kind of place that embodies classic small town Oklahoma charm.
So small, in fact, that it doesn't even have a stoplight.
Most residents here own their own homes, with many retirees
drawn to its peaceful streets and friendly neighborhoods. This was
a time where everyone knew everyone, and families moved to
(01:33):
Maker for exactly what it promised, the security and innocence
of small town America, far removed from the dangers and
complexities of city life. But on the eleventh of October
two thousand and five, that sense of safety would forever
be shattered. Paramedics were dispatched to a modest home along
a quiet street. What happened in that house and the
(01:56):
devastating chain of missed opportunities that led to it would
expose a very broken system. Kelsey Smith Briggs was born
(02:19):
on the twenty eighth of December two thousand and two
in Oklahoma City. She was the daughter of Red Dawn
Smith and Lance Briggs, a couple whose love story began
the way so many small town romances do. They had
met in the halls of Maker High School. Lance was
the football player, read the cheerleader. She was once even
(02:40):
a candidate for homecoming queen, with Lance proudly on her arm.
Back then, their smiles and photographs told the story of
two teenagers wrapped in the promise of forever, but that
promise didn't really take shape until after graduation. The couple's
early years together weren't without hardship. Before they marry married,
(03:00):
Ray became pregnant, but she suffered a miscarriage. Still, they
pressed forward, exchanging vows on the porch of her parents'
home on the fifteenth of July two thousand, But the
fairy tale was short lived. Lance's mother, Kathy, would later
describe those years as chaotic. They battled all the time.
(03:21):
They had a terrible marriage for two years. They both drank,
they parted too much, They did all the wrong things.
But the fighting wasn't just words. Less than a year
into their marriage, Ray told police that Lance had slammed
her against a wall and pressed his forearm against her throat.
She said the argument sparked because she hadn't supersized his
(03:43):
McDonald's value meal. Lance was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor,
eventually pleading no contest. He was placed on probation and
ordered to take anger management classes. But even that incident
was tangled in conflicting stories. Cathy claimed that Raylegh admitted
she'd made the whole thing up, that Lance had simply
(04:04):
taken her cads to stop her from going out, and
in retaliation she called police. According to Cathy, Ray tried
to have the charges dropped, but she was told she
could face trouble herself for filing a false report, so
the charges stood. There were other arguments, more trouble. Eventually,
the couple filed for divorce, finalizing it in July two
(04:27):
thousand and two. By then, Ray was pregnant again. When
Kelsey was born that December, Ray insisted that another man
was the father, but Lance pushed Freddie na test. Three
months later, he learned the truth. Kelsey was his From
then on, Kelsey's life was split between two households and
(04:47):
two parents who could hardly stand to be in the
same room together. The bitterness ran deep, and, as one
relative put it, the hatred between them became unbelievable. It
was just unreasonable. At times, Ray had primary custody. She
and Kelsey lived with Ray's mother and her ailing father.
(05:07):
Ray worked with the elderly, took shifts at a manufacturing plant,
and studied at Seminole State College. Lance meanwhile remarried Tying
the Knot with a woman named Ashley Liddle in June
of two thousand and three. Kelsey quickly bonded with her
new stepmother. When Lance was called the active duty in
Iraq with the U. S. Army Reserve, Kelsey was two
(05:29):
years old and already full of personality. She loved afternoons
at the park, especially the swings. She twirl her hair
the same way she twirled the yarn locks of her
cabbage patch doll as she drifted off to sleep at night.
Disney's brother, Beaar, was on constant rotation. At a baby pageant,
she took home title of Miss Personality. Kelsey was also
(05:53):
a regular at Miss Julie's Giggles and Grinn's Daycare, where
owner Julie Sebastian remembered her as fearless and fun. She
said she was a happy child. She would play, she
would hang in there with the other kids. She would
do everything they did. Outgoing smart, she did what she wanted.
On the surface, Kelsey's world was filled with all the
(06:14):
ordinary joys of a toddler's life, swings, story books, and
stuffed toys. But beneath that, the tension between the adults
in her life simmered, and soon they would have robbed
in ways that no one could take back. In two
(06:39):
thousand and four, when Ray's father passed away, she and
Kelsey left her mother's house and moved into an apartment
in Maker. Life was in transition, and before long another
major change was coming. On the night of October fifteenth,
Ray found herself at hot Rod's, a bar in nearby Shawnee.
(07:00):
The lights were low, the music loud, and somewhere between
the crowd and the dance floor, she met a man
named Michael Lee Porter. Before the night was over, the
two were dancing together, and soon they were more than
dance partners. Friend said that Porter fell hard. Wendell Kelly
Junior remembered it vividly. When he got with that girl,
(07:21):
he was in a daze. He was so in love
with her. If she said jump, roll over backwards, he'd
did it. Porter had two children of his own, eight
year old Whitney and little Michael, who was just two
years old. He was financially secure, at least on the surface,
having taken over his family's magnet manufacturing business after both
(07:41):
of his parents died. As president of Midwest Industries, Incorporated,
he oversaw a dozen employees producing magnets used in anything
from cell phones to computer keyboards. His sister actually owned
the company, and to outsiders, he looked like a man
with his life in order. So when Kelsey's grandmother Kathy
(08:02):
heard about him, she was hopeful. She recalled, we had
heard that he was a really nice guy, and we
were excited for her. That she was with somebody that
had two children of his own, and we thought, great,
they'll be a great family. But not everybody shared her optimism.
Some of Porter's own friends felt uneasy. Wendell recalled that
(08:23):
girl had a temper. She'd throw tantrums. His bookkeeper when
it'da ward went as far to warn him directly, there's
too much drama in her life right now, you need
to stay out of it. But still the relationship moved quickly.
Ray was in the middle of a messy divorce, but
within months she and Kelsey had packed their things and
(08:44):
had moved to Porter's home in Shawnee. By April the
next year, they were married. There's a photo from that day,
taken on the court house steps. Porter's in a pullover shirt,
jean shorts, and tennis shoes. Ray stands beside him with
Kelsey in her arms. They look for the moment like
a new family ready for a fresh chapter. But behind
(09:08):
the smiles, Porter's financial world was crumbling. He'd quietly lost
his Shawnee home and lied to cover it up, telling
some people he had sold it, others that he'd least
or rented it. In truth, he had nowhere to live.
That problem was solved when he brought Ray's mother's house
just outside. Maker Gaylas Smith sold it to them for
(09:30):
a reduced price of two hundred and forty thousand dollars,
a chance, it seemed, for stability, But what should have
been a fresh start for Kelsey and her blended family
was anything, but beneath the surface, tension and trouble were
already building, the kind of pressure that would eventually shatter everything.
(10:00):
It wasn't long after Ray moved in with Michael Porter
that the first signs of trouble began to appear. In
January of two thousand and five, Kelsey came to the
attention of authorities she had a broken collar bone. Ray
took her to the emergency room for treatment, saying she
had fallen out of bed on January eighth while sleeping
(10:20):
at home. But just days later, while Kelsey was staying
with Lance and his wife Ashley, they noticed something that
went far beyond a simple fall. Kelsey had bruises across
her face and body, abrasions on her neck and bottom,
and that same broken collar boone. The bruises were in
various stages of healing, some fearing, others fresh. To Lance
(10:44):
and Ashley, it was unmistakable somebody had hurt her. If
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at Unity North Hospital in Shawnee shared their concerns the
facial bruises that appeared on January thirteenth hadn't been there
when she was traded for the collarbone injury four days earlier.
The pattern of bruising suggested not an accident, but a baiting,
possibly with an object such as a hairbrush. When Lance
(12:50):
was asked if Ray could have caused the injuries, he
admitted that if she had been drinking and got mad,
she could go overboard. Ray insisted that the bruises on
Kelsey's face were from the fall out of bed. She
also claimed that when Kelsey went to visit Lance and Ashley,
she didn't have any of the other bruises. Despite the
injuries in the doctor's concern, Kelsey went home with her mother.
(13:15):
On January twenty first, Rahd took her to see another physician,
doctor Deborah Catcher, who noted child is extremely fair and
bruises may show through more than the average child than
be visible for a longer period of time, but by
now the Department of Human Services, also known as DHS
was involved. On January twenty fourth, during an emergency hearing,
(13:36):
Kelsey was sent to live with her paternal grandmother, Cathy.
A child welfare investigation concluded that Kelsey had been abused
while in her mother's care. In interviews, re admitted she
had spank to Kelsey on the diaper with her hand,
but denied seeing any bruises. DHS recommended that Kelsey not
be returned to her mother's custody because her safety couldn't
(13:59):
be assured. While Nance was serving overseas in the military,
he agreed to his parents being Kelsey's guardians. By February,
Ray was granted modified visitation, including on supervised visits, as
long as Michael Porter wasn't present, but according to Cathy,
she actually had her more than we did. Actually recalled
(14:22):
that almost every visit ended the same way. It was
almost constantly, every time she brought her back there was
something wrong or something had happened. On March twenty fourth,
two thousand and five, a third referral was made when
Kelsey was seen at a medical facility for a bruise
on her nose and right knee, along with a closed
(14:42):
head injury. The report said she'd been at her mother's
home when she fell over. The child welfare worker noted
it was unknown whether the injuries were intentional, but recommended
that all visits be supervised to prevent further harm. Then
came April fourteenth, during what should have been an enjoyable
family adding to the zoo, Kelsey reportedly twisted her foot.
(15:06):
By the time she was examined, she had a spray
and ankle, bruising on both arms, and bruises on her
lower back. Some were yellow with age. One bruise on
her left arm was the size of a half dollar,
just below the elbow. Kelsey said she had bitten herself,
though it was unclear if there were actual teethmarks. Another
(15:27):
bruise on her right arm was black, pencil thin and
less than an inch long. On her lower back and
spine were multiple small bruises, no larger than a dime.
The most alarming discovery came on April twenty fifth. Ray
brought Kelsey to the DHS office, where workers immediately saw
that she whimpered constantly and she refused to walk or crawl.
(15:51):
They ordered Ray to take her to the emergency room immediately.
X rays revealed the horrifying truth, bilateral fractures on both
her legs, left and right leg. An orthopedic surgeon at
ou Medical Center examined Kelsey on the second of May.
His conclusion was clear the injuries were the result of abuse.
(16:12):
Significant force would have been required, the kind caused by
violently yanking or twisting a child's legs. His reports stated
that the injuries didn't match the explanations given by the family.
DHS informed the district attorney that allegations of abuse were
in the process of being confirmed. There were also concerns
that Porter had been at Ray's home when Kelsey was there,
(16:35):
in direct violation of the court order. But on April
twenty ninth, yet another referral came in. This time Kelsey
had new facial injuries. There was bruising across the bridge
of her nose that extended to her eyebrows and not
by her right eye, and finger shaped marks on her cheeks.
The collar believed that somebody had grabbed her face. Ray
(16:57):
claimed that Kelsey had been sleeping in bed with her
steps as when her stepsister accidentally elbowed her. A DHS
worker called this explanation laudible. By May third, Kelsey was
once again placed in DHS emergency protective custody and moved
to live with her maternal grandmother, Gayla Smith. Court battles
(17:18):
over costoy intensified. On the fifth of May, Ray sought
to terminate the guardianship, insisting she had completed all court
ordered requirements. Despite the mounting evidence of abuse, some people
still believed that Kelsey should be returned to her mother's care.
At a June hearing, the judge heard from a dozen witnesses,
including DHS workers, a court appointed special advocate, and both grandmothers.
(17:44):
The DHS worker recommended that Kelsey remain with Gayla and
that any return to Ray should be phased in. Cathy
agreed she wanted Kelsey back with her mother. Eventually, but
only once the truth of the injuries was uncovered. But
the Special Advocate recons commended immediate reunification. In the end,
the judge sided with that advice. Kelsey was returned to
(18:07):
her mother's home under the Community Home Base Service supervision.
Cathy was stunned. She was convinced that either Ray or
Porter was responsible for the abuse. She contacted everybody she
could think of, even writing a letter to the first
lady plating for help, But the court's position was clear.
(18:28):
The focus was on reunifying the family, not keeping them apart.
The incidents didn't stop, and now the change wasn't just
on Kelsey's body, it was in her eyes, her voice,
her very spirit. The vibrant little girl who once loved
swings and story books was beginning to fade. By August
(18:58):
two thousand and five, the changes in Kelsey were becoming
impossible to ignore. On August, second, HBS workers noted disturbing
new behaviors. Kelsey had begun harming herself and suffering from
night terrors. Two weeks later, on the nineteenth of August,
she was in a car accident. Four days after that,
(19:19):
she was refusing to eat. When Kathy saw her granddaughter
for the first time in weeks. She was unprepared for
what she saw. She recalled, we were expecting to walk
in there and see this happy, healthy little child, and oh,
my gosh, that's not what we saw. She was horrified.
Kelsey looked frail, withdrawn and nothing like the lively little
(19:41):
girl she remembered. Kathy immediately filed a complaint with DHS.
On the twenty ninth of August, a DHS worker visited
the home observed bruises on Kelsey's face and across her nose.
They were explained away as a result of the recent
car accident, but there was more. Kelsey had lost significant
(20:02):
weight and her once bright personality had dimmed. She was timid, cautious,
almost afraid to move. September brought more troubling signs. On
the sixth of September, Kelsey had a blister on her
Eyelid Ray explained that she had been washing Kelsey's hair
with adult shampoo when soup got in her eye, and
Kelsey had rubbed it until a blister formed. Not long after,
(20:25):
Kelsey was spotted outside the home alone and unsupervised. Even
Kelsey's physician, who had followed her case for months began
raising alarms. In a letter to the Lincoln County Court
dated August thirtieth, she recommended that Kelsey remain in one
stable home so she could be properly evaluated for possible
seizure activity. That medical warning was serious enough that the
(20:48):
court placed new limits on certain visitation arrangements. But no
matter the restrictions, the decline in Kelsey's spirit was undeniable.
Over the course of the year, the spark that had
once to find her was disappearing. At daycare, she was
no longer the bubbly, curious child who loved to play.
She'd become withdrawn, aggressive, sometimes biding and punching others without warning.
(21:13):
She didn't know what was going on, recalled Julie, a
daycare worker who watched the transformation firsthand. Kelsey's hair even
began falling out. She stopped dating, and she refused to nap.
She just changed completely, Julie said. The joy in Kelsey
was being replaced by a confusion, fear, and a quiet
kind of resignation, as though the world had become a
(21:35):
place where bad things simply happened and there was no
way to stop them. It was the eleventh of October
two thousand and five, two year old Kelsey Smith Briggs
(21:55):
was at home with her mother Ray. That evening, Kelsey
was supposed to go to the movie with her grandmother, Gayla,
something she'd been looking forward to before the auting. There
was one more routine step in the long chain of
court oversight that had become part of Kelsey's life. DHS
worker Patty Bonner arrived for a scheduled home visit, the
(22:16):
eighteenth such visits in summer, each one ordered by the
court to check on Kelsey's welfare. Patty later described Kelsey
that afternoon, It's just like a normal two year old girl.
She was playful, climbing over her mother and smiling. But
Patty also noticed that when Ray left the room, Kelsey
became anxious, her energy shifting from carefred to uneasy in
(22:40):
just a matter of seconds. Michael Porter raised new husband
wasn't there. He was at work and, by all accounts,
in high spirits. The company he ran had just secured
a twenty thousand dollars deal. When he left the shop,
he was on cloud nine. His coworker, Wendell would later
say Patty did notice a Nicolson sized bruise on Kelsey
(23:01):
and a band it on her finger. Still, there was
nothing that seemed on the surface to demand immediate alarm.
She left it around one thirty pm. Not long afterwards,
Porter returned home. When he arrived when Kelsey were napping together.
A short while later, Ray woke, left Kelsey in Porter's
care and went to pick up his daughter, Whitney from school.
(23:25):
What happened next took less than ninety minutes, but it
would change everything. Sometime after Ray left, Porter dialed nine
one one. His voice was urgent. He told dispatchers that
Kelsey been napping when he heard a strange grunting sound.
When he checked on her, she looked as though she
was having a seizure. Her body was rigid, her neck arched,
(23:48):
her hands and jaw were clenched. She had a history
of seizures, he said. He claimed he tapped her on
the face, shouted her name, splash coal water on her,
blew in her mouth, even tried chess and press essions
before calling for help. Then he ran outside, creatling Kelsey
in his arms, waiting for the ambulance. Paramedics arrived and
(24:08):
worked frantically as they sped towards Prague Hospital by the
time they arrived, Kelsey was gone. The truth of her
final moments would come later. In the cold, clinical light
of the medical examiner's office, Kelseie's body told a horrific story.
There were bruises across her ribs, chest, side, and back.
(24:29):
There was bleeding in her intestines, bruising on her scalp
and face, a tear in her upper gum, blood in
her ear, and one tonil was missing. Her cause of
death was blunt forced trauma to the abdomen. The pathologist
explained that the injury could have been caused by a knee,
a punch, or by being squeezed with tremendous force. There
(24:51):
were also injuries to the genital area, though it couldn't
be determined if they were the result of sexual abuse.
This was clearly no accident. Two year old Kelsey Smith
Briggs had been killed. After Kelsey's death, Michael Porter and
(25:15):
Ray Smith were separated and placed into interrogation rooms. Almost immediately,
they turned on each other, each pointing the finger for
the injuries that killed Kelsey. Right Old detectives that after
DHS worker Patty Bonner left that afternoon, she and Kelsey
lay down for a nap Porter came home from work
at about two thirty pm. She said. Fifteen minutes later,
(25:38):
she left to pick up Porter's daughter from school, a
task she claimed that Porter had asked her to do.
According to Ray, Kelsey was fine when she walked out
the door. She also painted a picture of a strange
relationship between Porter and her two year old daughter. Porter,
she alleged, was jealous of Kelsey, accusing Ray of neglecting
(25:58):
his children, a year old Whitney and two year old Michael.
Ray's mother, Gala, confirmed that she had heard that tension before.
Just a week earlier, She recalled, Porter had yelled at Ray,
you don't care about anything but that thing in the back.
That thing was Kelsey. When detectives questioned Porter, his version
(26:19):
of events initially matched Raise, at least on the surface.
He said he found Ray and Kelsey asleep when he
came home. He also confirmed that Ray left at two
forty five to pick up his daughter, but in his telling,
that was unusual. He claimed he was the one who
normally collected Whitney from school, and that Ray's sudden departure
(26:41):
didn't sit right with him. He even said he told
her to wait that he would do the pick up himself,
but said that she rushed out the door anyway. This
directly contradicted Ray's claims that Porter had asked her to go.
Porter told investigators that are on fifteen to twenty minutes
after Ray left, Kelsey began grunting and appeared to have
(27:01):
a seizure. When asked if he would take a polygraph examination, which,
while not admissible in court, can sometimes be used investigations,
Porter refused. He told detectives he had a bad situation
with the polygraph once before. Michael Lee Porter was the
only one of them arrested. He was charged with first
degree murder in order to be held on one million
(27:22):
dollar bill. The news stun people who knew him. His bookkeeper, Nita,
described him as a loving father and stepfather. She said
she'd go in there and set on his lap and
play on his computer. He'd come out in the office
and get her cookies or candy bars. The mother of
his son, Alicia Bruce, echoed that sentiment when she said,
(27:44):
I've never seen him hurt a child. That's just not
Mike's personality. He loves his kids and not just his own.
I wouldn't have any problem leaving Mike alone with our
son today. In the eyes of the investigators, though it
was simple. Only one adult had been in the home
when Elsie suffered her fatal injuries. That made Porter the
only one arrested. At least for now, Ray continue to
(28:08):
insist she had no role in her daughter's death. In
a prepared statement, she declared, I believe my daughter was murdered.
This has devastated me and my family. I had nothing
to do with hurting my daughter, and anyone who implies
that I had anything to do with this is wrong. Porter,
for his part, also proclaimed his innocence from jail. He
(28:28):
wrote to his secretary at Midwest Industries, reach out to
everyone you can and let them know that I'll be back.
Have faith that the truth will be revealed. When Kelsey's
history with Child Protective Services became public, outreach followed. Many
asked if she had been failed, if more could have
been done to keep her safe. DHS spokesman George Johnson
(28:52):
resisted that conclusion and stated, I'm not willing to say
that the system failed this child. Who Ever did this
to this child not only failed this child, they failed
the Oklahoma standard and the American way of life. You
don't do these things to children. He pointed to the
challenge of cases such as Kelsey, staring, you don't have
(29:13):
someone old enough to be a credible witness about what's
happening to them. Associated District Judge Craig Kay defended his
own decision to return Kelsey to her mother. He said,
when there's no evidence to show the child as in
imminent danger and apparent completes all their obligations under DHS's
treatment plan, I'm required by law to return that child
(29:34):
to the parents. Ask exactly what I did followed the
letter of the law. Kelsey's family, her father and her grandparents,
had fought to protect her. Now they were channeling their
grief into advocacy. Her grandfather, Royce Briggs, said, it's a
grassroots effort made up of people who are frustrated with
(29:54):
the system. There aren't cracks in the system, there are creators.
On the ninth of November, a round two hundred people
gathered outside the state capital. Many carried signs with Kelsey's photo.
Others read let the Children's Voices be heard and Justice
for Kelsey. Her grandmother Cathy told the crowd, we always
(30:15):
said Kelsey's life had purpose, and we feel her purpose
is to save other kids. Her father Lands added, I
can't believe it happened. Our gold noise to keep it
from happening to anyone else. He subsequently filed the fifty
million dollar lawsuit against the state, demanding a full overhaul
of day Hess. Ray wasn't at the rally. Days later,
(30:38):
the reason emerged. She was four months pregnant with Porter's child.
From behind bars, Porter fad for divorce. Ray responded by
requesting half their Marrital assets, attorney fees, and financial support
for the baby. In a statement, she said, I'm not
associating this child with the father. This is my own child.
(30:59):
The circumstance chances surrounding this event are not the fault
of the baby. Jadson's learned the truth that Porter was
struggling financially and on the brink of bankruptcy. She thought
that he was wealthy that she could live a life
of luxury at home. Then in December came another surprise.
Porter's bill was slashed to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
(31:22):
His sister put up the family's business as collateral. He
walked out of jail shortly after Michael Porter's release, state
Representative Chris Stale announced plans to push legislation to reform
Oklahoma's child protection system. It was first called the Child
Protection Reform Act, but Stale said he would rename it
the Kelsey Briggs Law. The bill aimed to create stronger
(31:46):
review procedures and allow greater input from those advocating for
a child's welfare. It would also give judges and DJs
the authority request investigative help from the Oklahoma State Bureau
of Investigation. While the bill moved forward, the case took
another turn. Towards the end of February. Ray was arrested
and charged with child neglect and enabling child abuse. Prosecutors
(32:10):
alleged that she knew or should have known, that Kelsey
was being abused and allowed it to happen. Although investigators
still believed it was Porter who bagged Kelsey to death,
they said that Ray's in action made her culpable. She
was released on twenty five thousand dollars bill. Two months later,
she gave birth to a baby boy, but because of
the felony charges against her, he was automatically placed into
(32:34):
state protective custody. Not long after, lawmakers approved that Kelsey
Briggs Act. Cathy said the bill might have saved her
granddaughter's life. She stated, this tragedy is something a child
should never have to go through. We can't bring Kelsey back,
but we can do something. Lance filed two lawsuits, one
(32:55):
against the state and another against physicians doctor Kelly Coons
and docor Andrea Bart. He accused them of failing to
recognize and report abuse when trading Kelsey's broken legs and
collar boone. Then in July, there was another bombshell. Michael
Porter was now charged with sexually abusing Kelsey. Her body
(33:16):
had been exhumed for a second autopsy, and doctor Dean Hawlly,
a nationally recognized expert from Indiana University, confirmed sexual abuse,
noting a genital terror and bruising. The following month, Governor
Brad Henry signed the Kelsey Smith Briggs Bill into law.
Both Ramporter pleaded not guilty to all of the charges
(33:39):
against them, and the judge ordered separate trials, with Porter's
case to be heard first. On the third of February
twenty seventeen, just before his trial began, Michael Porter appeared
in court and announced that he was accepting a please
(34:01):
He sobbed as he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge
of enabling child abuse. In exchange, prosecutors drop the first
degree murder and sexual abuse charges. Porter was sentenced to
thirty years in prison, with a requirement to serve at
least twenty five and a half years before being eligible
for parole. His attorney, Paul Sutton, said Porter was the
(34:22):
only one willing to accept responsibility for his role in
Kelsey's death, but maintained his client didn't kill her, instead
pointing the finger at her mother Ray. For the first time,
Porter claimed that in July of two thousand and five,
he heard Ray yelling and Kelsey crying, and then saw
her strike the child in the stomach. He admitted that
(34:45):
he never reported it. His defense attorney, Sutton said, Michael
has agreed to assist the District Attorney's office in any
way he can. We all hope that the continued search
for the truth results in true justice. Kelsey's grandmother, Gaila,
remained convinced that Porter was the killer. She said, you
(35:06):
can make anything look good on paper. Cathy was less certain,
saying she believed that Porter might actually be remorseful. Behind
the scenes, it was revealed that prosecutors had built a
strong case against him. Porter's own daughter told her skill
counselor Catherine Reynolds that he sprang to Kelsey real hard
one time and hid her head against a brick wall.
(35:29):
She was only eight years old at the time, and
she told Reynolds that Porter acted nice to Kelsey when
people were around, but was mean when nobody was looking.
Another witness, Janie Cotton, said she once asked Kelsey about
an injury to her leg, and Kelsey told her Daddy
Mike kicked me out of bed DHS worker and at
(35:49):
Swinford was prepared to testify that she twice overheard Kelsey
say Daddy Mike had hurt her. In total, five witnesses
were ready to tell the jury they had heard Kelsey
blame her injuries on Porter. With that kind of testimony waiting,
Porter's defense team likely knew that an acquittal was impossible.
The play deal was their only option. In March, Ray
(36:11):
was additionally charged with child abuse or in the alternative,
permitting child abuse. It was an unusual charge, meaning that
prosecutors wanted jurors to convict her either for directly harming
Kelsey herself or for allowing Michael Porter to harm her.
Her defense team quickly filed the motion requesting that the
trial be moved to neighboring Creek County, a request that
(36:33):
the judge approved. While preparations for trial were underway, a
reporting to Kelsey's murder was released, revealing major feelings by DHS.
The report folled the DHS workers for failing to investigate
why Kelsey was repeatedly injured. It found that they may
not have considered the danger Kelsey was in as serious
(36:53):
enough to warrant to their investigation, despite her having two
broken legs and broken collarbone at different points before her death.
The report stated that after such injuries, DAHS could have
contacted police immediately. The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth
concluded that Kelsey's death exposed major systemic problems in how
(37:14):
the state handled child abuse cases. Among the changes it
called for were better training for police officers, prosecutors, and
child welfare workers. Then in July, jury selection began in
Creek County. By the ninth the panel of seven women
and five men had been chosen. The next morning, Ray
was escorted into the courtroom and seated alongside her defense attorneys.
(37:38):
During opening statements, prosecutor Richard Smotherman told jurors that Kelsey
had been beaten to death. He explained that her injuries
were so severe her pancreas had burst, calling her death
the final chapter in a horrible tragedy. He detailed the
pattern of injuries that Kelsey had endured in the year
leading up to her murder. He stated, we know the
(38:01):
abuse didn't stop because she's not here. That day should
never have happened. Smith was either causing the abuse herself
or she knew about it and she did nothing to
stop it. Rai's attorney, Steve Huddleston, condered by declaring her innocence.
He told the jury that Michael Porter had been the
one abusing and ultimately killing Kelsey. He stated she loved
(38:23):
her daughter, her daughter was her life. Testimony began with
graphic photographs from the Medical Examiner's office showing Kelsey dressed
in a T shirt and a blood stained diaper. Jurors
were then walked through her previous injuries, the broken legs,
the broken collar bone, and the numerous bruises. DHS workers
(38:45):
testified about their investigations and the explanations Ray had given
for the injuries. One worker said she believed police had
been notified after Kelsey's broken legs, although evidence suggested they hadn't.
Her grandmother, Kathy he testified about Kelsey's appearance on the
twenty seventh of August. She told the jury she was different.
(39:06):
She looked like she had lost her spirit. Ashley, who
was formerly married to Kelsey's father, Lance, also testified, I
felt something wasn't right, that she was being abused. The
prosecution's most unexpected witness was Michael Porter himself. Prosecutor Smotherman
openly told jurors he believed that Porter had sexually assaulted
(39:28):
and killed Kelsey, but nevertheless he called him to the
stand anyway. Wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists,
Porter admitted he had made a mistake by not reporting
Ray for abuse when he saw it. He testified, I
said a lot of things to cover up for her.
I would have rather believed anything than my wife killed her.
(39:49):
According to Porter, he had witnessed three incidents of abuse,
including Ray punching Kelsey and the stomach with a closed fist,
jerking her from the car, and throwing her into a
chair just two day before she died. During cross examination,
Huddleston accused Porter of being the real killer and of
sexually assaulting Kelsey. He pointed out that Porter had called
(40:11):
Kelsey's grandmother before calling nine one one the day she died,
and revealed that Porter had put a dib wrong Kelsey
after finding her gravely injured. Huddleston said, you knew what
you did, and you didn't want anyone to find out
that she was naked from the bottom down. Huddleston also
challenged Porter's credibility by asking why, if he had truly
(40:33):
witnessed abuse, he had written a letter and testified on
Ray's behalf during a custody hearing. You never saw Ray
Dawn hurt Kelsey, and that's the truth, he argued. He
added that no loving parent would leave their own children
alone with somebody they believed to be abusive, yet Porter
had done exactly that. Other witnesses also described seeing Ray
(40:56):
mistreat Kelsey. Gene Snyder testified that into on thousand and four,
he saw Ray swatt Kelsey three times inside the entrance
of a convenience store, holding her by the arm as
the child tried to sit down to avoid being spanked.
He said, Ray then picked Kelsey up and slung her
over the front seat of the car into the back.
(41:17):
Ray's former boss, Deborah Gilbrith, recalled Ray being upset because
police were investigating her for abuse. Ray ad made it
to Zebra that she had spanked Kelsey with a hair
brush over her diaper, a story which was corroborated by
former co worker Mildred Johnson. Deborah also testified about another
incident in which Kelsey told her that Daddy Mike was mean.
(41:41):
Deborah urged Ray to look into those comments because she
was supposed to be her daughter's protector. Instead, Ray brushed
it off. She called Kelsey little miss attitude and said
she was just jealous. DHS worker in s Swimford described
a supervised vis at which she heard Kelsey say Daddy
(42:02):
might hurt my head. Ray laughed and told her daughter
that was impossible because porter hadn't been around her. The
prosecution then closed its case with expert witness doctor Robert
Block and doctor Andy Sullivan, who testified that Kelsey's injuries
were consistent with battered child syndrome. They further revealed that
(42:23):
her legs had been broken at different times, clear evidence,
they said of repeated abuse. Ray's mother, Gaillis Smith, was
the first to take the stand for the defense. She
told the jury that Ray had wanted an autopsy performed
(42:45):
to find out how Kelsey died, while Porter had opposed it.
According to Gailly, their suspicions about Porter had started to
grow in the weeks before Kelsey's death. One afternoon, she
said that Porter had taped Kelsey's eyes shut while playing.
It wasn't a joke to Gaila. We were starting to
watch him, she told the jury. The testimony then shifted
(43:08):
to Rai's demeanor in the aftermath of her daughter's death.
Pastor Charles Percy recalled finding her in the hospital, cradling
Kelsey's lifeless body, asking him to pray with her, and
pleading to know why her little girl had been taken.
Porter was there too, and, according to Percy, his reactions
seemed strangely exaggerated. The pastor described him making agonizing sounds,
(43:32):
spouncing off the wall, and beating his fists against the floor.
Percy admitted, it bothered me. It really troubled me that
he was responding the way he was responding. Officer Scott
Morrison offered a similar account. Outside the hospital, he said
that Porter was pounding on the bed of a pickup truck,
(43:53):
muttering over and over, She's never going to forgive me.
It later emerged that in the days after Kel's death,
Porter had threatened to take his own life. When the
defense rested, the trial drew to a close. The jury
deliberated for just two hours and forty minutes before returning
to the courtroom. The public gallery filled as the verdict
(44:15):
was read read on Smith guilty of enabling child abuse.
The jury recommended a sentence of twenty seven years. They
could have given her life. Ray bowed her head and wept,
I don't understand. Help me. Later, adjur summed it up
bluntly and said it was pretty obvious she knew what
(44:37):
was going on and seemingly didn't do anything about it.
For Kelsey's family, it was some measure of justice. Her
grandmother Kathy said the verdict sends a message to other
abusive parents that they will be held accountable if their
children are injured. Ray, however, continued to insist the entire
(44:57):
case was a conspiracy, claim she never knew her daughter
was being abused. She said, I never ever thought Mike
would have hurt Kelsey if I would have thought that
I would have ran with her and left everything else behind.
Then I would have turned him in. Kelsey was my
best friend in the entire world, and it hurts so
(45:18):
bad for people to say the things they'd do. I
didn't hurt Kelsey, and I didn't sit back and let
it happen. If I could have seen into the future,
I never would have dated Mike Porter. It was a
statement heavy with irony. Ray had been warned again and
again that her daughter was being abused. She had chosen
to look the other way. When sentencing came in September,
(45:41):
Ray was asked if she had anything to say. She
didn't ask for mercy, she didn't claim innocence. Instead, she
turned to Kathy and said, Kathy, I forgive you. Cathy's
response was swift and cutting. She's demented for years. Kathy
had been the driving force behind bringing Read to justice,
(46:03):
making sure she was charged for her role in Kelsey's death.
Lance True said that Ray's words showed no remorse, not
for what she had done and not for what she
had failed to do protect her child. The wrongful death
lawsuit against Kelsey's doctors was dismissed for having no legal
cost of action, but the suit against the state remained. Eventually,
(46:27):
the family reached a settlement five hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars from the state plus another one hundred thousand
dollars from a private agency. From her prison cell, re
demanded half, the judge denied her. In the end, all
she was left with was the same thing she had
on the day Kelsey died empty hands. Well, that is
(47:15):
it for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you
so much for listening, and I'd like to say a
massive thank you to my new supporters up on Patreon, Victoria, Diana, Kathy,
Sonya and Leah. In addition to Patreon, Morbidology is now
up on Apple Subscriptions, where you can get ad free
early release and bonus episodes of Morbidology. Plus the support
(47:39):
upon Patreon and Apple subscriptions here see go such a
long way and helps to defray the costs of hosting
subscription services and freedom of information requests, and I am
eternally grateful. Remember the check is out at morbidology dot
com for more information about this episode and to read
some true crime articles. Until next time, take care of yourselves,
(48:01):
stay safe, and have an amazing week,
Maker is a small town of around one thousand residents,
nestled about forty five miles east of Oklahoma City in
the heart of rural Oklahoma. It was founded in the
early nineteen hundreds and named after the Maker family. This
quiet community came to life when the railroad depot was
built on Julian Maker's property, with the generous landowner donating
(01:12):
the very ground that would become the town site. It's
the kind of place that embodies classic small town Oklahoma charm.
So small, in fact, that it doesn't even have a stoplight.
Most residents here own their own homes, with many retirees
drawn to its peaceful streets and friendly neighborhoods. This was
a time where everyone knew everyone, and families moved to
(01:33):
Maker for exactly what it promised, the security and innocence
of small town America, far removed from the dangers and
complexities of city life. But on the eleventh of October
two thousand and five, that sense of safety would forever
be shattered. Paramedics were dispatched to a modest home along
a quiet street. What happened in that house and the
(01:56):
devastating chain of missed opportunities that led to it would
expose a very broken system. Kelsey Smith Briggs was born
(02:19):
on the twenty eighth of December two thousand and two
in Oklahoma City. She was the daughter of Red Dawn
Smith and Lance Briggs, a couple whose love story began
the way so many small town romances do. They had
met in the halls of Maker High School. Lance was
the football player, read the cheerleader. She was once even
(02:40):
a candidate for homecoming queen, with Lance proudly on her arm.
Back then, their smiles and photographs told the story of
two teenagers wrapped in the promise of forever, but that
promise didn't really take shape until after graduation. The couple's
early years together weren't without hardship. Before they marry married,
(03:00):
Ray became pregnant, but she suffered a miscarriage. Still, they
pressed forward, exchanging vows on the porch of her parents'
home on the fifteenth of July two thousand, But the
fairy tale was short lived. Lance's mother, Kathy, would later
describe those years as chaotic. They battled all the time.
(03:21):
They had a terrible marriage for two years. They both drank,
they parted too much, They did all the wrong things.
But the fighting wasn't just words. Less than a year
into their marriage, Ray told police that Lance had slammed
her against a wall and pressed his forearm against her throat.
She said the argument sparked because she hadn't supersized his
(03:43):
McDonald's value meal. Lance was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor,
eventually pleading no contest. He was placed on probation and
ordered to take anger management classes. But even that incident
was tangled in conflicting stories. Cathy claimed that Raylegh admitted
she'd made the whole thing up, that Lance had simply
(04:04):
taken her cads to stop her from going out, and
in retaliation she called police. According to Cathy, Ray tried
to have the charges dropped, but she was told she
could face trouble herself for filing a false report, so
the charges stood. There were other arguments, more trouble. Eventually,
the couple filed for divorce, finalizing it in July two
(04:27):
thousand and two. By then, Ray was pregnant again. When
Kelsey was born that December, Ray insisted that another man
was the father, but Lance pushed Freddie na test. Three
months later, he learned the truth. Kelsey was his From
then on, Kelsey's life was split between two households and
(04:47):
two parents who could hardly stand to be in the
same room together. The bitterness ran deep, and, as one
relative put it, the hatred between them became unbelievable. It
was just unreasonable. At times, Ray had primary custody. She
and Kelsey lived with Ray's mother and her ailing father.
(05:07):
Ray worked with the elderly, took shifts at a manufacturing plant,
and studied at Seminole State College. Lance meanwhile remarried Tying
the Knot with a woman named Ashley Liddle in June
of two thousand and three. Kelsey quickly bonded with her
new stepmother. When Lance was called the active duty in
Iraq with the U. S. Army Reserve, Kelsey was two
(05:29):
years old and already full of personality. She loved afternoons
at the park, especially the swings. She twirl her hair
the same way she twirled the yarn locks of her
cabbage patch doll as she drifted off to sleep at night.
Disney's brother, Beaar, was on constant rotation. At a baby pageant,
she took home title of Miss Personality. Kelsey was also
(05:53):
a regular at Miss Julie's Giggles and Grinn's Daycare, where
owner Julie Sebastian remembered her as fearless and fun. She
said she was a happy child. She would play, she
would hang in there with the other kids. She would
do everything they did. Outgoing smart, she did what she wanted.
On the surface, Kelsey's world was filled with all the
(06:14):
ordinary joys of a toddler's life, swings, story books, and
stuffed toys. But beneath that, the tension between the adults
in her life simmered, and soon they would have robbed
in ways that no one could take back. In two
(06:39):
thousand and four, when Ray's father passed away, she and
Kelsey left her mother's house and moved into an apartment
in Maker. Life was in transition, and before long another
major change was coming. On the night of October fifteenth,
Ray found herself at hot Rod's, a bar in nearby Shawnee.
(07:00):
The lights were low, the music loud, and somewhere between
the crowd and the dance floor, she met a man
named Michael Lee Porter. Before the night was over, the
two were dancing together, and soon they were more than
dance partners. Friend said that Porter fell hard. Wendell Kelly
Junior remembered it vividly. When he got with that girl,
(07:21):
he was in a daze. He was so in love
with her. If she said jump, roll over backwards, he'd
did it. Porter had two children of his own, eight
year old Whitney and little Michael, who was just two
years old. He was financially secure, at least on the surface,
having taken over his family's magnet manufacturing business after both
(07:41):
of his parents died. As president of Midwest Industries, Incorporated,
he oversaw a dozen employees producing magnets used in anything
from cell phones to computer keyboards. His sister actually owned
the company, and to outsiders, he looked like a man
with his life in order. So when Kelsey's grandmother Kathy
(08:02):
heard about him, she was hopeful. She recalled, we had
heard that he was a really nice guy, and we
were excited for her. That she was with somebody that
had two children of his own, and we thought, great,
they'll be a great family. But not everybody shared her optimism.
Some of Porter's own friends felt uneasy. Wendell recalled that
(08:23):
girl had a temper. She'd throw tantrums. His bookkeeper when
it'da ward went as far to warn him directly, there's
too much drama in her life right now, you need
to stay out of it. But still the relationship moved quickly.
Ray was in the middle of a messy divorce, but
within months she and Kelsey had packed their things and
(08:44):
had moved to Porter's home in Shawnee. By April the
next year, they were married. There's a photo from that day,
taken on the court house steps. Porter's in a pullover shirt,
jean shorts, and tennis shoes. Ray stands beside him with
Kelsey in her arms. They look for the moment like
a new family ready for a fresh chapter. But behind
(09:08):
the smiles, Porter's financial world was crumbling. He'd quietly lost
his Shawnee home and lied to cover it up, telling
some people he had sold it, others that he'd least
or rented it. In truth, he had nowhere to live.
That problem was solved when he brought Ray's mother's house
just outside. Maker Gaylas Smith sold it to them for
(09:30):
a reduced price of two hundred and forty thousand dollars,
a chance, it seemed, for stability, But what should have
been a fresh start for Kelsey and her blended family
was anything, but beneath the surface, tension and trouble were
already building, the kind of pressure that would eventually shatter everything.
(10:00):
It wasn't long after Ray moved in with Michael Porter
that the first signs of trouble began to appear. In
January of two thousand and five, Kelsey came to the
attention of authorities she had a broken collar bone. Ray
took her to the emergency room for treatment, saying she
had fallen out of bed on January eighth while sleeping
(10:20):
at home. But just days later, while Kelsey was staying
with Lance and his wife Ashley, they noticed something that
went far beyond a simple fall. Kelsey had bruises across
her face and body, abrasions on her neck and bottom,
and that same broken collar boone. The bruises were in
various stages of healing, some fearing, others fresh. To Lance
(10:44):
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That's neutrafil dot com promo code morbidology ten. The physician
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at Unity North Hospital in Shawnee shared their concerns the
facial bruises that appeared on January thirteenth hadn't been there
when she was traded for the collarbone injury four days earlier.
The pattern of bruising suggested not an accident, but a baiting,
possibly with an object such as a hairbrush. When Lance
(12:50):
was asked if Ray could have caused the injuries, he
admitted that if she had been drinking and got mad,
she could go overboard. Ray insisted that the bruises on
Kelsey's face were from the fall out of bed. She
also claimed that when Kelsey went to visit Lance and Ashley,
she didn't have any of the other bruises. Despite the
injuries in the doctor's concern, Kelsey went home with her mother.
(13:15):
On January twenty first, Rahd took her to see another physician,
doctor Deborah Catcher, who noted child is extremely fair and
bruises may show through more than the average child than
be visible for a longer period of time, but by
now the Department of Human Services, also known as DHS
was involved. On January twenty fourth, during an emergency hearing,
(13:36):
Kelsey was sent to live with her paternal grandmother, Cathy.
A child welfare investigation concluded that Kelsey had been abused
while in her mother's care. In interviews, re admitted she
had spank to Kelsey on the diaper with her hand,
but denied seeing any bruises. DHS recommended that Kelsey not
be returned to her mother's custody because her safety couldn't
(13:59):
be assured. While Nance was serving overseas in the military,
he agreed to his parents being Kelsey's guardians. By February,
Ray was granted modified visitation, including on supervised visits, as
long as Michael Porter wasn't present, but according to Cathy,
she actually had her more than we did. Actually recalled
(14:22):
that almost every visit ended the same way. It was
almost constantly, every time she brought her back there was
something wrong or something had happened. On March twenty fourth,
two thousand and five, a third referral was made when
Kelsey was seen at a medical facility for a bruise
on her nose and right knee, along with a closed
(14:42):
head injury. The report said she'd been at her mother's
home when she fell over. The child welfare worker noted
it was unknown whether the injuries were intentional, but recommended
that all visits be supervised to prevent further harm. Then
came April fourteenth, during what should have been an enjoyable
family adding to the zoo, Kelsey reportedly twisted her foot.
(15:06):
By the time she was examined, she had a spray
and ankle, bruising on both arms, and bruises on her
lower back. Some were yellow with age. One bruise on
her left arm was the size of a half dollar,
just below the elbow. Kelsey said she had bitten herself,
though it was unclear if there were actual teethmarks. Another
(15:27):
bruise on her right arm was black, pencil thin and
less than an inch long. On her lower back and
spine were multiple small bruises, no larger than a dime.
The most alarming discovery came on April twenty fifth. Ray
brought Kelsey to the DHS office, where workers immediately saw
that she whimpered constantly and she refused to walk or crawl.
(15:51):
They ordered Ray to take her to the emergency room immediately.
X rays revealed the horrifying truth, bilateral fractures on both
her legs, left and right leg. An orthopedic surgeon at
ou Medical Center examined Kelsey on the second of May.
His conclusion was clear the injuries were the result of abuse.
(16:12):
Significant force would have been required, the kind caused by
violently yanking or twisting a child's legs. His reports stated
that the injuries didn't match the explanations given by the family.
DHS informed the district attorney that allegations of abuse were
in the process of being confirmed. There were also concerns
that Porter had been at Ray's home when Kelsey was there,
(16:35):
in direct violation of the court order. But on April
twenty ninth, yet another referral came in. This time Kelsey
had new facial injuries. There was bruising across the bridge
of her nose that extended to her eyebrows and not
by her right eye, and finger shaped marks on her cheeks.
The collar believed that somebody had grabbed her face. Ray
(16:57):
claimed that Kelsey had been sleeping in bed with her
steps as when her stepsister accidentally elbowed her. A DHS
worker called this explanation laudible. By May third, Kelsey was
once again placed in DHS emergency protective custody and moved
to live with her maternal grandmother, Gayla Smith. Court battles
(17:18):
over costoy intensified. On the fifth of May, Ray sought
to terminate the guardianship, insisting she had completed all court
ordered requirements. Despite the mounting evidence of abuse, some people
still believed that Kelsey should be returned to her mother's care.
At a June hearing, the judge heard from a dozen witnesses,
including DHS workers, a court appointed special advocate, and both grandmothers.
(17:44):
The DHS worker recommended that Kelsey remain with Gayla and
that any return to Ray should be phased in. Cathy
agreed she wanted Kelsey back with her mother. Eventually, but
only once the truth of the injuries was uncovered. But
the Special Advocate recons commended immediate reunification. In the end,
the judge sided with that advice. Kelsey was returned to
(18:07):
her mother's home under the Community Home Base Service supervision.
Cathy was stunned. She was convinced that either Ray or
Porter was responsible for the abuse. She contacted everybody she
could think of, even writing a letter to the first
lady plating for help, But the court's position was clear.
(18:28):
The focus was on reunifying the family, not keeping them apart.
The incidents didn't stop, and now the change wasn't just
on Kelsey's body, it was in her eyes, her voice,
her very spirit. The vibrant little girl who once loved
swings and story books was beginning to fade. By August
(18:58):
two thousand and five, the changes in Kelsey were becoming
impossible to ignore. On August, second, HBS workers noted disturbing
new behaviors. Kelsey had begun harming herself and suffering from
night terrors. Two weeks later, on the nineteenth of August,
she was in a car accident. Four days after that,
(19:19):
she was refusing to eat. When Kathy saw her granddaughter
for the first time in weeks. She was unprepared for
what she saw. She recalled, we were expecting to walk
in there and see this happy, healthy little child, and oh,
my gosh, that's not what we saw. She was horrified.
Kelsey looked frail, withdrawn and nothing like the lively little
(19:41):
girl she remembered. Kathy immediately filed a complaint with DHS.
On the twenty ninth of August, a DHS worker visited
the home observed bruises on Kelsey's face and across her nose.
They were explained away as a result of the recent
car accident, but there was more. Kelsey had lost significant
(20:02):
weight and her once bright personality had dimmed. She was timid, cautious,
almost afraid to move. September brought more troubling signs. On
the sixth of September, Kelsey had a blister on her
Eyelid Ray explained that she had been washing Kelsey's hair
with adult shampoo when soup got in her eye, and
Kelsey had rubbed it until a blister formed. Not long after,
(20:25):
Kelsey was spotted outside the home alone and unsupervised. Even
Kelsey's physician, who had followed her case for months began
raising alarms. In a letter to the Lincoln County Court
dated August thirtieth, she recommended that Kelsey remain in one
stable home so she could be properly evaluated for possible
seizure activity. That medical warning was serious enough that the
(20:48):
court placed new limits on certain visitation arrangements. But no
matter the restrictions, the decline in Kelsey's spirit was undeniable.
Over the course of the year, the spark that had
once to find her was disappearing. At daycare, she was
no longer the bubbly, curious child who loved to play.
She'd become withdrawn, aggressive, sometimes biding and punching others without warning.
(21:13):
She didn't know what was going on, recalled Julie, a
daycare worker who watched the transformation firsthand. Kelsey's hair even
began falling out. She stopped dating, and she refused to nap.
She just changed completely, Julie said. The joy in Kelsey
was being replaced by a confusion, fear, and a quiet
kind of resignation, as though the world had become a
(21:35):
place where bad things simply happened and there was no
way to stop them. It was the eleventh of October
two thousand and five, two year old Kelsey Smith Briggs
(21:55):
was at home with her mother Ray. That evening, Kelsey
was supposed to go to the movie with her grandmother, Gayla,
something she'd been looking forward to before the auting. There
was one more routine step in the long chain of
court oversight that had become part of Kelsey's life. DHS
worker Patty Bonner arrived for a scheduled home visit, the
(22:16):
eighteenth such visits in summer, each one ordered by the
court to check on Kelsey's welfare. Patty later described Kelsey
that afternoon, It's just like a normal two year old girl.
She was playful, climbing over her mother and smiling. But
Patty also noticed that when Ray left the room, Kelsey
became anxious, her energy shifting from carefred to uneasy in
(22:40):
just a matter of seconds. Michael Porter raised new husband
wasn't there. He was at work and, by all accounts,
in high spirits. The company he ran had just secured
a twenty thousand dollars deal. When he left the shop,
he was on cloud nine. His coworker, Wendell would later
say Patty did notice a Nicolson sized bruise on Kelsey
(23:01):
and a band it on her finger. Still, there was
nothing that seemed on the surface to demand immediate alarm.
She left it around one thirty pm. Not long afterwards,
Porter returned home. When he arrived when Kelsey were napping together.
A short while later, Ray woke, left Kelsey in Porter's
care and went to pick up his daughter, Whitney from school.
(23:25):
What happened next took less than ninety minutes, but it
would change everything. Sometime after Ray left, Porter dialed nine
one one. His voice was urgent. He told dispatchers that
Kelsey been napping when he heard a strange grunting sound.
When he checked on her, she looked as though she
was having a seizure. Her body was rigid, her neck arched,
(23:48):
her hands and jaw were clenched. She had a history
of seizures, he said. He claimed he tapped her on
the face, shouted her name, splash coal water on her,
blew in her mouth, even tried chess and press essions
before calling for help. Then he ran outside, creatling Kelsey
in his arms, waiting for the ambulance. Paramedics arrived and
(24:08):
worked frantically as they sped towards Prague Hospital by the
time they arrived, Kelsey was gone. The truth of her
final moments would come later. In the cold, clinical light
of the medical examiner's office, Kelseie's body told a horrific story.
There were bruises across her ribs, chest, side, and back.
(24:29):
There was bleeding in her intestines, bruising on her scalp
and face, a tear in her upper gum, blood in
her ear, and one tonil was missing. Her cause of
death was blunt forced trauma to the abdomen. The pathologist
explained that the injury could have been caused by a knee,
a punch, or by being squeezed with tremendous force. There
(24:51):
were also injuries to the genital area, though it couldn't
be determined if they were the result of sexual abuse.
This was clearly no accident. Two year old Kelsey Smith
Briggs had been killed. After Kelsey's death, Michael Porter and
(25:15):
Ray Smith were separated and placed into interrogation rooms. Almost immediately,
they turned on each other, each pointing the finger for
the injuries that killed Kelsey. Right Old detectives that after
DHS worker Patty Bonner left that afternoon, she and Kelsey
lay down for a nap Porter came home from work
at about two thirty pm. She said. Fifteen minutes later,
(25:38):
she left to pick up Porter's daughter from school, a
task she claimed that Porter had asked her to do.
According to Ray, Kelsey was fine when she walked out
the door. She also painted a picture of a strange
relationship between Porter and her two year old daughter. Porter,
she alleged, was jealous of Kelsey, accusing Ray of neglecting
(25:58):
his children, a year old Whitney and two year old Michael.
Ray's mother, Gala, confirmed that she had heard that tension before.
Just a week earlier, She recalled, Porter had yelled at Ray,
you don't care about anything but that thing in the back.
That thing was Kelsey. When detectives questioned Porter, his version
(26:19):
of events initially matched Raise, at least on the surface.
He said he found Ray and Kelsey asleep when he
came home. He also confirmed that Ray left at two
forty five to pick up his daughter, but in his telling,
that was unusual. He claimed he was the one who
normally collected Whitney from school, and that Ray's sudden departure
(26:41):
didn't sit right with him. He even said he told
her to wait that he would do the pick up himself,
but said that she rushed out the door anyway. This
directly contradicted Ray's claims that Porter had asked her to go.
Porter told investigators that are on fifteen to twenty minutes
after Ray left, Kelsey began grunting and appeared to have
(27:01):
a seizure. When asked if he would take a polygraph examination, which,
while not admissible in court, can sometimes be used investigations,
Porter refused. He told detectives he had a bad situation
with the polygraph once before. Michael Lee Porter was the
only one of them arrested. He was charged with first
degree murder in order to be held on one million
(27:22):
dollar bill. The news stun people who knew him. His bookkeeper, Nita,
described him as a loving father and stepfather. She said
she'd go in there and set on his lap and
play on his computer. He'd come out in the office
and get her cookies or candy bars. The mother of
his son, Alicia Bruce, echoed that sentiment when she said,
(27:44):
I've never seen him hurt a child. That's just not
Mike's personality. He loves his kids and not just his own.
I wouldn't have any problem leaving Mike alone with our
son today. In the eyes of the investigators, though it
was simple. Only one adult had been in the home
when Elsie suffered her fatal injuries. That made Porter the
only one arrested. At least for now, Ray continue to
(28:08):
insist she had no role in her daughter's death. In
a prepared statement, she declared, I believe my daughter was murdered.
This has devastated me and my family. I had nothing
to do with hurting my daughter, and anyone who implies
that I had anything to do with this is wrong. Porter,
for his part, also proclaimed his innocence from jail. He
(28:28):
wrote to his secretary at Midwest Industries, reach out to
everyone you can and let them know that I'll be back.
Have faith that the truth will be revealed. When Kelsey's
history with Child Protective Services became public, outreach followed. Many
asked if she had been failed, if more could have
been done to keep her safe. DHS spokesman George Johnson
(28:52):
resisted that conclusion and stated, I'm not willing to say
that the system failed this child. Who Ever did this
to this child not only failed this child, they failed
the Oklahoma standard and the American way of life. You
don't do these things to children. He pointed to the
challenge of cases such as Kelsey, staring, you don't have
(29:13):
someone old enough to be a credible witness about what's
happening to them. Associated District Judge Craig Kay defended his
own decision to return Kelsey to her mother. He said,
when there's no evidence to show the child as in
imminent danger and apparent completes all their obligations under DHS's
treatment plan, I'm required by law to return that child
(29:34):
to the parents. Ask exactly what I did followed the
letter of the law. Kelsey's family, her father and her grandparents,
had fought to protect her. Now they were channeling their
grief into advocacy. Her grandfather, Royce Briggs, said, it's a
grassroots effort made up of people who are frustrated with
(29:54):
the system. There aren't cracks in the system, there are creators.
On the ninth of November, a round two hundred people
gathered outside the state capital. Many carried signs with Kelsey's photo.
Others read let the Children's Voices be heard and Justice
for Kelsey. Her grandmother Cathy told the crowd, we always
(30:15):
said Kelsey's life had purpose, and we feel her purpose
is to save other kids. Her father Lands added, I
can't believe it happened. Our gold noise to keep it
from happening to anyone else. He subsequently filed the fifty
million dollar lawsuit against the state, demanding a full overhaul
of day Hess. Ray wasn't at the rally. Days later,
(30:38):
the reason emerged. She was four months pregnant with Porter's child.
From behind bars, Porter fad for divorce. Ray responded by
requesting half their Marrital assets, attorney fees, and financial support
for the baby. In a statement, she said, I'm not
associating this child with the father. This is my own child.
(30:59):
The circumstance chances surrounding this event are not the fault
of the baby. Jadson's learned the truth that Porter was
struggling financially and on the brink of bankruptcy. She thought
that he was wealthy that she could live a life
of luxury at home. Then in December came another surprise.
Porter's bill was slashed to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
(31:22):
His sister put up the family's business as collateral. He
walked out of jail shortly after Michael Porter's release, state
Representative Chris Stale announced plans to push legislation to reform
Oklahoma's child protection system. It was first called the Child
Protection Reform Act, but Stale said he would rename it
the Kelsey Briggs Law. The bill aimed to create stronger
(31:46):
review procedures and allow greater input from those advocating for
a child's welfare. It would also give judges and DJs
the authority request investigative help from the Oklahoma State Bureau
of Investigation. While the bill moved forward, the case took
another turn. Towards the end of February. Ray was arrested
and charged with child neglect and enabling child abuse. Prosecutors
(32:10):
alleged that she knew or should have known, that Kelsey
was being abused and allowed it to happen. Although investigators
still believed it was Porter who bagged Kelsey to death,
they said that Ray's in action made her culpable. She
was released on twenty five thousand dollars bill. Two months later,
she gave birth to a baby boy, but because of
the felony charges against her, he was automatically placed into
(32:34):
state protective custody. Not long after, lawmakers approved that Kelsey
Briggs Act. Cathy said the bill might have saved her
granddaughter's life. She stated, this tragedy is something a child
should never have to go through. We can't bring Kelsey back,
but we can do something. Lance filed two lawsuits, one
(32:55):
against the state and another against physicians doctor Kelly Coons
and docor Andrea Bart. He accused them of failing to
recognize and report abuse when trading Kelsey's broken legs and
collar boone. Then in July, there was another bombshell. Michael
Porter was now charged with sexually abusing Kelsey. Her body
(33:16):
had been exhumed for a second autopsy, and doctor Dean Hawlly,
a nationally recognized expert from Indiana University, confirmed sexual abuse,
noting a genital terror and bruising. The following month, Governor
Brad Henry signed the Kelsey Smith Briggs Bill into law.
Both Ramporter pleaded not guilty to all of the charges
(33:39):
against them, and the judge ordered separate trials, with Porter's
case to be heard first. On the third of February
twenty seventeen, just before his trial began, Michael Porter appeared
in court and announced that he was accepting a please
(34:01):
He sobbed as he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge
of enabling child abuse. In exchange, prosecutors drop the first
degree murder and sexual abuse charges. Porter was sentenced to
thirty years in prison, with a requirement to serve at
least twenty five and a half years before being eligible
for parole. His attorney, Paul Sutton, said Porter was the
(34:22):
only one willing to accept responsibility for his role in
Kelsey's death, but maintained his client didn't kill her, instead
pointing the finger at her mother Ray. For the first time,
Porter claimed that in July of two thousand and five,
he heard Ray yelling and Kelsey crying, and then saw
her strike the child in the stomach. He admitted that
(34:45):
he never reported it. His defense attorney, Sutton said, Michael
has agreed to assist the District Attorney's office in any
way he can. We all hope that the continued search
for the truth results in true justice. Kelsey's grandmother, Gaila,
remained convinced that Porter was the killer. She said, you
(35:06):
can make anything look good on paper. Cathy was less certain,
saying she believed that Porter might actually be remorseful. Behind
the scenes, it was revealed that prosecutors had built a
strong case against him. Porter's own daughter told her skill
counselor Catherine Reynolds that he sprang to Kelsey real hard
one time and hid her head against a brick wall.
(35:29):
She was only eight years old at the time, and
she told Reynolds that Porter acted nice to Kelsey when
people were around, but was mean when nobody was looking.
Another witness, Janie Cotton, said she once asked Kelsey about
an injury to her leg, and Kelsey told her Daddy
Mike kicked me out of bed DHS worker and at
(35:49):
Swinford was prepared to testify that she twice overheard Kelsey
say Daddy Mike had hurt her. In total, five witnesses
were ready to tell the jury they had heard Kelsey
blame her injuries on Porter. With that kind of testimony waiting,
Porter's defense team likely knew that an acquittal was impossible.
The play deal was their only option. In March, Ray
(36:11):
was additionally charged with child abuse or in the alternative,
permitting child abuse. It was an unusual charge, meaning that
prosecutors wanted jurors to convict her either for directly harming
Kelsey herself or for allowing Michael Porter to harm her.
Her defense team quickly filed the motion requesting that the
trial be moved to neighboring Creek County, a request that
(36:33):
the judge approved. While preparations for trial were underway, a
reporting to Kelsey's murder was released, revealing major feelings by DHS.
The report folled the DHS workers for failing to investigate
why Kelsey was repeatedly injured. It found that they may
not have considered the danger Kelsey was in as serious
(36:53):
enough to warrant to their investigation, despite her having two
broken legs and broken collarbone at different points before her death.
The report stated that after such injuries, DAHS could have
contacted police immediately. The Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth
concluded that Kelsey's death exposed major systemic problems in how
(37:14):
the state handled child abuse cases. Among the changes it
called for were better training for police officers, prosecutors, and
child welfare workers. Then in July, jury selection began in
Creek County. By the ninth the panel of seven women
and five men had been chosen. The next morning, Ray
was escorted into the courtroom and seated alongside her defense attorneys.
(37:38):
During opening statements, prosecutor Richard Smotherman told jurors that Kelsey
had been beaten to death. He explained that her injuries
were so severe her pancreas had burst, calling her death
the final chapter in a horrible tragedy. He detailed the
pattern of injuries that Kelsey had endured in the year
leading up to her murder. He stated, we know the
(38:01):
abuse didn't stop because she's not here. That day should
never have happened. Smith was either causing the abuse herself
or she knew about it and she did nothing to
stop it. Rai's attorney, Steve Huddleston, condered by declaring her innocence.
He told the jury that Michael Porter had been the
one abusing and ultimately killing Kelsey. He stated she loved
(38:23):
her daughter, her daughter was her life. Testimony began with
graphic photographs from the Medical Examiner's office showing Kelsey dressed
in a T shirt and a blood stained diaper. Jurors
were then walked through her previous injuries, the broken legs,
the broken collar bone, and the numerous bruises. DHS workers
(38:45):
testified about their investigations and the explanations Ray had given
for the injuries. One worker said she believed police had
been notified after Kelsey's broken legs, although evidence suggested they hadn't.
Her grandmother, Kathy he testified about Kelsey's appearance on the
twenty seventh of August. She told the jury she was different.
(39:06):
She looked like she had lost her spirit. Ashley, who
was formerly married to Kelsey's father, Lance, also testified, I
felt something wasn't right, that she was being abused. The
prosecution's most unexpected witness was Michael Porter himself. Prosecutor Smotherman
openly told jurors he believed that Porter had sexually assaulted
(39:28):
and killed Kelsey, but nevertheless he called him to the
stand anyway. Wearing an orange jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists,
Porter admitted he had made a mistake by not reporting
Ray for abuse when he saw it. He testified, I
said a lot of things to cover up for her.
I would have rather believed anything than my wife killed her.
(39:49):
According to Porter, he had witnessed three incidents of abuse,
including Ray punching Kelsey and the stomach with a closed fist,
jerking her from the car, and throwing her into a
chair just two day before she died. During cross examination,
Huddleston accused Porter of being the real killer and of
sexually assaulting Kelsey. He pointed out that Porter had called
(40:11):
Kelsey's grandmother before calling nine one one the day she died,
and revealed that Porter had put a dib wrong Kelsey
after finding her gravely injured. Huddleston said, you knew what
you did, and you didn't want anyone to find out
that she was naked from the bottom down. Huddleston also
challenged Porter's credibility by asking why, if he had truly
(40:33):
witnessed abuse, he had written a letter and testified on
Ray's behalf during a custody hearing. You never saw Ray
Dawn hurt Kelsey, and that's the truth, he argued. He
added that no loving parent would leave their own children
alone with somebody they believed to be abusive, yet Porter
had done exactly that. Other witnesses also described seeing Ray
(40:56):
mistreat Kelsey. Gene Snyder testified that into on thousand and four,
he saw Ray swatt Kelsey three times inside the entrance
of a convenience store, holding her by the arm as
the child tried to sit down to avoid being spanked.
He said, Ray then picked Kelsey up and slung her
over the front seat of the car into the back.
(41:17):
Ray's former boss, Deborah Gilbrith, recalled Ray being upset because
police were investigating her for abuse. Ray ad made it
to Zebra that she had spanked Kelsey with a hair
brush over her diaper, a story which was corroborated by
former co worker Mildred Johnson. Deborah also testified about another
incident in which Kelsey told her that Daddy Mike was mean.
(41:41):
Deborah urged Ray to look into those comments because she
was supposed to be her daughter's protector. Instead, Ray brushed
it off. She called Kelsey little miss attitude and said
she was just jealous. DHS worker in s Swimford described
a supervised vis at which she heard Kelsey say Daddy
(42:02):
might hurt my head. Ray laughed and told her daughter
that was impossible because porter hadn't been around her. The
prosecution then closed its case with expert witness doctor Robert
Block and doctor Andy Sullivan, who testified that Kelsey's injuries
were consistent with battered child syndrome. They further revealed that
(42:23):
her legs had been broken at different times, clear evidence,
they said of repeated abuse. Ray's mother, Gaillis Smith, was
the first to take the stand for the defense. She
told the jury that Ray had wanted an autopsy performed
(42:45):
to find out how Kelsey died, while Porter had opposed it.
According to Gailly, their suspicions about Porter had started to
grow in the weeks before Kelsey's death. One afternoon, she
said that Porter had taped Kelsey's eyes shut while playing.
It wasn't a joke to Gaila. We were starting to
watch him, she told the jury. The testimony then shifted
(43:08):
to Rai's demeanor in the aftermath of her daughter's death.
Pastor Charles Percy recalled finding her in the hospital, cradling
Kelsey's lifeless body, asking him to pray with her, and
pleading to know why her little girl had been taken.
Porter was there too, and, according to Percy, his reactions
seemed strangely exaggerated. The pastor described him making agonizing sounds,
(43:32):
spouncing off the wall, and beating his fists against the floor.
Percy admitted, it bothered me. It really troubled me that
he was responding the way he was responding. Officer Scott
Morrison offered a similar account. Outside the hospital, he said
that Porter was pounding on the bed of a pickup truck,
(43:53):
muttering over and over, She's never going to forgive me.
It later emerged that in the days after Kel's death,
Porter had threatened to take his own life. When the
defense rested, the trial drew to a close. The jury
deliberated for just two hours and forty minutes before returning
to the courtroom. The public gallery filled as the verdict
(44:15):
was read read on Smith guilty of enabling child abuse.
The jury recommended a sentence of twenty seven years. They
could have given her life. Ray bowed her head and wept,
I don't understand. Help me. Later, adjur summed it up
bluntly and said it was pretty obvious she knew what
(44:37):
was going on and seemingly didn't do anything about it.
For Kelsey's family, it was some measure of justice. Her
grandmother Kathy said the verdict sends a message to other
abusive parents that they will be held accountable if their
children are injured. Ray, however, continued to insist the entire
(44:57):
case was a conspiracy, claim she never knew her daughter
was being abused. She said, I never ever thought Mike
would have hurt Kelsey if I would have thought that
I would have ran with her and left everything else behind.
Then I would have turned him in. Kelsey was my
best friend in the entire world, and it hurts so
(45:18):
bad for people to say the things they'd do. I
didn't hurt Kelsey, and I didn't sit back and let
it happen. If I could have seen into the future,
I never would have dated Mike Porter. It was a
statement heavy with irony. Ray had been warned again and
again that her daughter was being abused. She had chosen
to look the other way. When sentencing came in September,
(45:41):
Ray was asked if she had anything to say. She
didn't ask for mercy, she didn't claim innocence. Instead, she
turned to Kathy and said, Kathy, I forgive you. Cathy's
response was swift and cutting. She's demented for years. Kathy
had been the driving force behind bringing Read to justice,
(46:03):
making sure she was charged for her role in Kelsey's death.
Lance True said that Ray's words showed no remorse, not
for what she had done and not for what she
had failed to do protect her child. The wrongful death
lawsuit against Kelsey's doctors was dismissed for having no legal
cost of action, but the suit against the state remained. Eventually,
(46:27):
the family reached a settlement five hundred and twenty five
thousand dollars from the state plus another one hundred thousand
dollars from a private agency. From her prison cell, re
demanded half, the judge denied her. In the end, all
she was left with was the same thing she had
on the day Kelsey died empty hands. Well, that is
(47:15):
it for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank you
so much for listening, and I'd like to say a
massive thank you to my new supporters up on Patreon, Victoria, Diana, Kathy,
Sonya and Leah. In addition to Patreon, Morbidology is now
up on Apple Subscriptions, where you can get ad free
early release and bonus episodes of Morbidology. Plus the support
(47:39):
upon Patreon and Apple subscriptions here see go such a
long way and helps to defray the costs of hosting
subscription services and freedom of information requests, and I am
eternally grateful. Remember the check is out at morbidology dot
com for more information about this episode and to read
some true crime articles. Until next time, take care of yourselves,
(48:01):
stay safe, and have an amazing week,
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