Drugged Out Parents Turn Son Into Concrete Statue

Kaden McWilliams was born on December 20th, 2010, in Colorado to parents Elisha McWilliams Panky and Leland Panky. Some reports indicated that Leland was Kaden’s stepfather, but information that we will get to later on in the episode proved otherwise. Elisha and Leland were married in 2014, after which Kaden’s sister was born. However, things weren’t happy in the Panky household. In November of 2017, Leland began beating Elisha. According to their landlord, Elisha had recently changed from being a really outgoing person to a hermit that just wanted to stay in her house. The family was evicted in early 2018, after which they began staying in area hotels. During the 2017-2018 school year, Kaden attended Ellis Elementary School. His principal, Nicole Whiteman, described him as a hard worker who did well academically, who was always positive and caring, and who lived the Ellis core value of integrity. In her words, at Ellis, Kaden stood out from others from the moment he walked through the school doors every morning with a huge smile on his face. His smile and eyes showed how kind and sweet he was at the core. Other students wanted to be his friend and looked to Kaden for what to do next. According to his teacher, Christina Hafler, he was always such a bright, shining student. He was always so kind, and he was so popular that he would walk into the cafeteria and kids would say, “Kaden, come sit by me.” Everybody was always so excited to see him; he was always smiling and such a pleasure to have in class.

Kaden last attended school on May 24, 2018, even though the school year didn’t end until May 31st. In August of 2018, Elisha notified Kaden’s school that he wouldn’t be coming back; in fact, she was going to homeschool him. This would become very important later in our story. According to her Facebook page, Elisha worked for IHS Markit, which later merged with S&P Global, and per their website, the company is the world’s foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, and analytics in the global capital and commodity markets. It is unclear what exactly Elisha did in her role, but she was employed as a temporary worker. Elisha was contracted to work for the company through April of 2018, but her contract was later extended until August. Employees of the company were allowed to work from home, but Elisha worked at the company’s satellite office in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, about 95 percent of the time. When pressed on why she came into the office, Elisha replied that she would rather work in the office than at home. In fact, Elisha rarely left the office at all. Coworkers claimed that she was there all of the time, almost every day, and would eat lunch at the office, never leaving to get takeout or go run errands. According to one coworker, Elisha was often still there after everyone had left for the day. After Elisha was involved in a car accident, another temporary worker would give her rides home, during which they would engage in small talk. During one of those conversations, Elisha stated that her husband Leland was a stay-at-home dad and she was the sole provider of income for their family of four.

On December 21st, 2018, officers and detectives with the Aurora Police Department responded to a call at the Aurora Extended Stay Hotel located at 14095 East Evans Avenue regarding a domestic violence complaint. There, they were met by 41-year-old Elisha McWilliams Panky, who had made the call regarding her husband Leland, who wasn’t actually staying at the same hotel as her. Leland was renting a room at the TownePlace Suites located at 3699 South Monaco Parkway in Denver. By means of their investigation, authorities were able to establish that the couple had two children: a baby girl that has not been named due to her age, and a boy, seven-year-old Kaden McWilliams. When asked about the whereabouts of the two children, Elisha informed the detectives that they were with their father, Leland. While speaking with Elisha, a substance suspected to be heroin was observed in the room. As such, the room was secured, and a search warrant was obtained by the Aurora Police Department. While Elisha was being transported to the police station, the search warrant led detectives to suspected heroin, and detectives also found a business card for a public storage facility located at 5005 East Evans Avenue in Denver. The access code was written on the back, and Detective Brandon Meadows contacted the storage facility and was advised that Elisha had been renting the storage unit since May 17th of 2018. After the search of Elisha’s room had concluded, it was locked and secured.

That same day, both Denver and Aurora police officers responded to the TownePlace Suites to have a chat with Leland Panky. Officers found Leland in the parking lot getting into a black 2009 BMW. Leland had an active domestic violence arrest warrant listed on the National Crime Information Center database, with Elisha listed as the victim. As such, he was taken into custody for questioning, and his vehicle was towed to the Denver Police Impound Lot. A cursory search of his BMW yielded a half ounce of crystal methamphetamine. While in custody, officers asked him about the whereabouts of his children, as Elisha claimed that they were with him. Leland claimed that one of his children was at a daycare center located near Interstate 225 and Parker Road, but changed the subject and avoided answering questions about Kaden. Eventually, Leland suggested that Kaden was with Elisha. Due to the active domestic violence warrant, he was ultimately placed under arrest and transported to the Aurora Police Department.

The next part of our story is a little convoluted because so much has been redacted from official reports. On December 21st, Aurora Police Detective Jeffrey Prince interviewed a 24-year-old woman who claimed that Leland had told her that he had lost his son three weeks prior. According to the woman, whose name was redacted, Leland told her that it was too much to handle, he hadn’t grieved, and he needed to get help from someone. She told Detective Prince that Leland told her that her family could have his storage unit, and later that he didn’t want anything to do with it because it had too many memories. This next part is also heavily redacted, but I was able to figure out the gist of what was going on based on clues that were provided in the affidavit. Aurora police officers responded to the Parker Learning Center located at 3104 South Parker Road in Aurora. There, they met with an employee and discovered that Elisha and Leland’s daughter was indeed at the location. The employee advised the officers that Leland had spoken to his staff on November 29th; allegedly, on that date, Leland said that he wanted his daughter to be social with the other kids at the center because she had lost her brother. Meanwhile, both Elisha and Leland were sitting at the Aurora Police Department being grilled about the whereabouts of Kaden, after which they both asked for a lawyer.

On December 23rd, Detective Meadows of the Aurora Police Department prepared a search warrant for the couple’s storage unit on East Evans Avenue, which was subsequently approved by a judge. The same day, detectives with the Crimes Against Children Unit responded to the storage unit. In addition, two canine handlers and their partners from Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States responded to assist. Both canine teams deployed cadaver dogs. At approximately 9:05 AM, an employee at the storage facility removed the lock from Elisha and Leland’s unit, and at around 9:59 that same morning, detectives raised the door and began their search. Numerous photographs were taken before anyone entered the unit. Now, at a glance, the unit contained a few plastic storage totes, a large pile of clothing, and miscellaneous items. Located at the back, closer to the door, detectives found several gallon-sized water bottles and a couple of partially empty bags of Quikrete brand concrete. Granular pieces of premixed concrete covered much of the floor of the unit. Along the eastern side was a rectangular-shaped object that was wrapped with layers of black trash bags and silver duct tape. The object was roughly two to three feet tall and two feet across. Canine handlers Kathy Bryantly and Melissa Kint both deployed their canine partners, Sam and Hawk, within the open storage unit, and neither canine alerted to any odors. Detective Patrick McGinty began the search of the unit by cutting away the layers of black plastic from the rectangular-shaped object. Each layer was tightly wrapped against the next interior layer, and many layers contained duct tape. After he removed several layers, he began to detect a strong odor. After the canines were deployed again, both showed noticeable interest in the rectangular-shaped object. Both handlers advised that their canine partners had displayed their individual trained indications, which signaled the presence of the odor of human remains. Based on the new information learned during the brief search, detectives halted their efforts and secured the scene pending the arrival of homicide detectives from the Denver Police Department.

After obtaining information from the members of the Aurora Police Department, Denver Homicide Detective Carrie Johnson responded to the Denver Police Department headquarters and authored another search warrant for the storage unit, which was signed by Judge Olympia Faye at 2:53 PM that same day. At around 3:00 PM, detectives Marty Smith and Carrie Johnson entered the unit with their search warrant. The unit contained numerous items of evidentiary value that were measured, photographed, and collected as evidence. Among those items that were found was a large plastic dog crate with a block of cement inside it. Denver Police bomb technician Kurt Peterson x-rayed the dog crate; however, the x-rays were inconclusive as to whether anything was contained inside the block of cement. As such, the dog crate was transported to the Denver Medical Examiner’s Office. Numerous bags of Quikrete and the large bottles of water were collected as evidence. As mentioned prior, the Quikrete mixture was prevalent on the floor of the unit and appeared to be mixed and placed inside of the dog crate. At 7:45 PM, the Denver Police Crime Lab and detectives finished collecting evidence that was in plain view. At 8:00 PM, Detective Smith secured the door and placed a lock on the unit. On Christmas Eve, while the citizens of Denver were out celebrating with their families, the Denver Medical Examiner’s Office identified and removed the remains of what appeared to be an adolescent from the block of cement. The body was decomposed, and a visual identification could not be made. Later that same day, a third search warrant for the storage unit was approved and signed by a judge, and Detective Smith from the Denver Police Crime Lab completed the search and documented the contents of the unit in its entirety.

On December 29th at 3:00 in the afternoon, Aurora Police Sergeant John Kessler contacted Detective Smith of the Denver Police Department and advised him that officers were at the Aurora Extended Stay Hotel with a female witness that claimed to have information about a seven-year-old boy that had been killed and placed into a dog crate. Aurora Police Officer Stacy Sparks, who was involved and familiar with the case, was already on location and meeting with the reporting party. Also present were officers Nick Langdon and Jason Weber. After Officer Sparks spoke with the witness, whose name has also been redacted, she was sure that she had all of the information pertaining to the case. At 3:12 PM, Officer Nick Langdon contacted Detective Smith. He told him that the witness had been staying at the Aurora Extended Stay Hotel with Elisha Panky and that Elisha told her that a little boy died inside of an animal carrier and was currently in her storage unit. At approximately 4:00 PM, Detective Smith arrived at the hotel and met with the witness, who agreed to go to the Denver Police Department headquarters for an interview. At 6:51 PM, Detective Smith began a video-recorded interview with the witness. She said that she had met Elisha at the Arapahoe County Jail on December 22nd. They were both in the same cell block, shared conversations with each other, and were released at the same time on December 24th—yes, even though a body was found inside of her storage unit, Elisha was released from jail. While they were in jail together, Elisha allegedly told the witness that her son was missing and that her husband, Leland, was the last person her son was known to be with. When they were released on December 24th, the witness went to stay with Elisha at the hotel after only two days of knowing one another. The hotel room was apparently already prepaid. The witness shared that she was with Elisha at the Arapahoe County Courthouse when detectives showed up, took a saliva sample from her, and gave her a piece of paper indicating that she was a suspect in her son’s death.

The witness testified that the previous day, around 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, Elisha told her that the little boy had died in the dog crate. Elisha shared with her that her husband and the two children were staying at the hotel, but she couldn’t exactly remember where the hotel was located. She told the witness that Leland would tell the boy to go into the dog crate, and she would do the same whenever she needed to take a shower. Allegedly, the little boy was in the dog crate in late July, and Leland had put blankets on top of the dog crate. Elisha told the woman that she heard her son cry out that he was hot and thirsty, but rather than help her own son, she just stayed in bed. She said that the following morning, she got up and found that the little boy had died, possibly of suffocation. Leland also checked on his son to verify that he was indeed dead. According to the witness, Elisha took the dog crate with the little boy still inside and put it in their car. Afterward, they drove to a store and bought concrete and industrial-strength trash bags. Elisha told the woman that they then drove to the storage unit, poured concrete into the carrier, and wrapped it in trash bags. As a result of the witness’s sworn testimony, an arrest warrant for child abuse resulting in death was prepared by Detective Smith. On January 2nd, 2019, Elisha Panky turned herself into the Denver Police Department, was placed under arrest, and was held in the Denver City Jail.

On January 7, 2019, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann announced the filing of formal charges against Elisha Panky in connection with the death of Kaden McWilliams. She was charged with one count of child abuse resulting in death and one count of abuse of a corpse. In a press release, DA McCann stated, “Thanks to the tenacious work by both the Aurora and Denver police departments, we now know that young Kaden was not only missing for several months, he was no longer alive. This is a terrible tragedy for the community. The community now knows that a little boy was not only missing for seven months, he had in fact died. While this case will take time to resolve, it will take even longer for our community to learn and heal.” On January 8th, Denver District Attorney Investigator Teresa Wirtz spoke with an employee of the storage facility. The employee advised the investigator that on May 17, 2018, Elisha Panky opened an account with their company and was given access to the Evans lot and a storage unit. According to the employee, Elisha was provided with a unique access code that allowed her entry into the Evans lot via the front access gate between the hours of 6:00 AM and 9:00 PM. When the unit was overdue on rent, the access code was deactivated. DNA samples from Elisha and Leland were compared to a DNA profile that was obtained from the postmortem samples from the juvenile encased in the concrete. On January 10th, forensic scientist Eric Duvall with the Denver Police Crime Lab determined that Leland and Elisha Panky were in fact the biological parents of the adolescent found encased in the concrete block: it was Kaden McWilliams.

On January 15th, Denver Police Crime Scene Investigator Michael Bush downloaded the Evans lot surveillance videos for the dates of May 17, 2018, through December 23, 2018. During that roughly seven-month period, both Leland and Elisha were caught on camera numerous times, both together and separately, accessing the gate and the storage unit, as well as paying their rent at the facility’s office. On January 20th, Detective Smith interviewed Leland at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office with his lawyers present. During that interview, Leland denied having a key to the storage unit. He stated that he had access when the couple first moved their belongings into the unit after they had been kicked out of the place they were living. Leland continued that after he and Elisha separated—which was before Kaden got out of school—he no longer had a key and he never accessed or entered the storage unit again. However, video surveillance caught Leland entering the lot via Elisha’s code on September 27, 2018; he was there for roughly 13 minutes. On February 28th, the Denver Coroner’s Office released the autopsy report for Kaden McWilliams. The report indicated that on December 24, 2018, Dr. Meredith Frank began the autopsy process. According to the report, in Dr. Frank’s opinion, Kaden McWilliams died as a result of homicide by undetermined means, with child maltreatment serving as a significant contributing condition. Dr. Frank also noted the following: the postmortem examination revealed severe emaciation of the body consistent with a malnourished or deprived state—seven-year-old Kaden only weighed 27 pounds—and numerous injuries of the head, torso, and extremities, some of which showed evidence of healing. It was also possible that Kaden experienced complications of injuries such as infection or sepsis; he may have also suffered a component of asphyxia or hyperthermia, which could not be confirmed. A test revealed metabolites in Kaden’s liver tissue. Dr. Frank determined that given the highly suspicious nature of his death, the findings of the autopsy, and that Kaden was a young child who was dependent on others for his care, the manner of death was a homicide.

On March 15th, Elisha Panky was interviewed at the Denver Police Department headquarters by Detective Smith. Also present were DA Joe Morales and both of Elisha’s lawyers. Elisha revealed the following information: near the end of May 2018, the family all moved into a room at the Intown Suites located at 2900 West Hampton Avenue in Sheridan, Colorado. Elisha was still working full-time and would leave the room at around 6:30 AM and return home about 12 hours later. She shared that Leland was solely responsible for the care of Kaden and his little sister. She stated that she was well aware that her husband was mistreating Kaden after they moved into the Intown Suites; she also knew that Leland wasn’t feeding him. Around July 11, 2018—three days prior to Kaden’s death—Elisha was taking a nap when she awoke to Leland yelling. She observed Leland holding Kaden by the neck up against the wall; the little boy’s feet were not touching the ground. Afterward, Leland took Kaden to the bathroom, where Elisha claimed she heard a ruckus, what sounded like things hitting the walls. She claimed that she never heard Kaden cry out in pain or cry at all for that matter. Leland then left the little boy in the bathroom with the door closed. He told Elisha something cryptic: that they couldn’t save both children and that they could take Kaden to the mountains to bury him. Elisha said that a few days prior to his death, Leland was keeping Kaden inside of the dog crate. She confirmed that the day they found her son dead, they purchased Quikrete, trash bags, and water, drove Kaden to their storage unit, mixed the concrete, and poured it into the crate. It should be noted that even though Elisha claimed that Kaden died in mid-July, authorities believed that he was killed in May, around the same time that she pulled him from school.

On March 29th, the Denver Coroner’s Office provided Detective Smith with a forensic anthropology report which was completed by Dr. Christine Pink and indicated the following: antemortem injuries in different stages of healing were present on the cranium and lower right arm. The right forearm had a fracture that had been healing for 40 to 50 days, and a nasal bone fracture showed evidence of healing at the time of death with new bone formation present. According to Dr. Pink, bone formation typically occurs in children by 10 to 14 days after the injury. Injuries to the frontal bone, nasal bones, and right orbit were consistent with blunt force trauma. These injuries were the result of at least one blow; however, due to the active nature of healing and the lack of intersecting fractures, separate instances of traumatic injury could not be ruled out. On May 24, 2019, Detective Smith requested a warrant for the arrest of Leland Panky for the offenses of first-degree murder, child abuse resulting in death, and tampering with a deceased human body. In January of 2020, prosecutors reached a plea deal with Leland: in exchange for the lesser charges of child abuse resulting in death and tampering with a deceased human body, his first-degree murder charge was dropped, and he was sentenced to 72 years in prison. As a result of her own plea deal, Elisha Panky was sentenced to 32 years in prison plus five years of mandatory parole for her role in Kaden’s death. Explaining the decision, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann pointed to the unknown cause of death for Kaden, remarking, “We had to take into account the risk of going to trial on first-degree murder charges when the exact cause of death was not determined.”

Prosecutors were also wary of subjecting Kaden’s loved ones, as well as a judge and jury, to a trial that would revisit the details of the case, which officials ascribed as one of the most horrific cases they had ever seen. Leland Panky’s crimes, they said, were intentional, deliberate, calculated, callous, self-serving, and deprived of any sense of humanity or human kindness. During sentencing, Elisha’s sister, Sarah Cruz, fondly remembered her nephew. She said, “I was in the room when Kaden was born. I saw his sweet little face and was immediately smitten. As Kaden grew, it became apparent that he had a very old soul. He was a sweet child and gentle, and our entire family fell in love with him.” Miss Cruz is now the guardian of Kaden’s younger sister, who she describes as a miracle and a survivor. In the wake of Kaden’s death, his former teacher, Christina Hafler, started a GoFundMe page to set up a memorial to honor the little boy, with a goal of incorporating Kaden’s memory in a public art project planned to be displayed on the side of Ellis Elementary, along with a bench or a tree. As of the date of the recording, the fundraiser is now closed and raised $6,210. As of September 2019, the memorial was completed: a 21-foot mural off of Dahlia Street in Denver features a tree and a bumblebee because Kaden enjoyed nature, and there is also a dinosaur too. A bright orange bench outside of the school’s entrance was also dedicated to Kaden, as well as a tree that was planted nearby in his honor.

Brooke Webb didn’t know Kaden McWilliams, but her daughter went to school with him and saw him in the hallways of Ellis Elementary. His death touched the community. It was devastating for the teachers, the parents, and the whole community, because if anyone had known that he was facing that kind of torture and abuse, they would have wanted to step in and do something. Webb still wanted to do something for a little boy who seemed to be forgotten in life and in death—police believe he was missing for several months before his body was found—so she started raising money for a memorial outside the school he loved. She wanted the bench, the tree, and a place for the kids who remember Kaden and knew Kaden to have peace while they are here at school. His classmates even gave their input on the mural that would be dedicated to the smiling boy with a love of nature; students met with the artists and helped paint the design they inspired. It is incredibly joyful. “I think about the specific things in it that were very special to Kaden, and then I see lots of colors representing so much joy and diversity in our own school, and it really feels very student-centered,” a teacher at Ellis noted, wanting people to feel that joy when they look at the mural and remember Kaden. “I hope that when people see the mural and see the bench, they’ll obviously remember Kaden and the amazing kid that he was, and also think about the care and the joy that we have at our school.”

Brooke Webb, a parent of an Ellis Elementary student, reached out to legislators in hopes of changing safe haven laws to include older children. She noted that many people are familiar with the concept of dropping a baby off at a fire station if they’re unable to care for it, and she believes there is a way to put in place a similar policy for older kids. Brooke Webb has been a champion for Kaden’s cause and also runs the Facebook group “Justice for Kaden McWilliams,” which kept its followers updated as Kaden’s case progressed. If you suspect that a child is being mistreated, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline. All calls are toll-free and confidential, and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. You could be the person to save a child just like Kaden McWilliams.