Here is a condensed version of her story: My phone number if you need to reach me is 405-279-3815. I am also on facebook Kathie Batt Briggs

Kelsey was in her mothers care and my son was deployed to active duty. I had Kelsey every other weekend and one weekend she was given to me with a broken collarbone. Mom says it was a fall and I had no reason not to believe her. That is until her clothes were taken off of her for a bath and she had 29 bruises and multiple abrasions. We took her to the ER and the doctor reported it as abuse. I got temp guardianship for until court. The mother then got weekends supervised and there were no more injuries. After a month the judge gave Mom unsupervised visits, but the new boyfriend was not to be around Kelsey. She had Kelsey almost 2/3 of the week and I had her the rest of the time and she allowed the boyfriend (Mike) to be present. Almost everytime she brought Kelsey home she would have bruises. Most 2 year olds get them, but it was a pattern that only happened with her. She had a large knot on her nose that they said the step sister did in the middle of the night, yet no one saw it. She had another injury to her nose and I took her to the ER fearing it was broken and the dr reported it. Her hair was falling out, and then she fell while with the aunt and sprained her ankle. Like most sprains she barely used it. Mom and I both have her and on my visit Kelsey mostly crawled or took a few steps between furniture. I had Kelsey as the elementary school one afternoon where she took a few steps in the office in front of the school nurse and we talked about how long it would take for it to get better. It had been less than a week so I wasn’t that concerned. 45 minutes later I gave her to Mom. 5 days later DHS called me to tell me Mom was taking Kelsey to ER to have her legs x-rayed. I thought that was strange and questioned them since only one leg was hurt. They said that both of her legs were swollen and hot to touch. The doctor stated the sprain was misdiagnosed and was actually broken and the other broke from over compensation. I spoke to the dr and had no reason not to believe her. I found out later the dr was the sister to Mom’s attorney. Mom told DHS she got Kelsey from me that way, but did not take her to the dr from Thurs-Mon. I had witnesses that knew otherwise, but yet the dr stated accident. A lady that worked for another foot dr and cousin to Mom said I needed another opinion to see if her growth plates were ok. She made the appointment with Dr. Sullivan who I learned later is one of the leading pediatric bone drs in the state. He x-rayed her and showed the x-rays to another expert in the field, Dr. Stempke and the radiologist. When he came back in the room he bluntly said her legs were not accidently broken. Someone yanked on them and both were spiral injuries and they happened a few days apart. He felt they were in the process of healing and left the casts off. As the mother of 4 and grandmother of 6 others at the time I had never heard of spiral fracture so this was a learning experience. I called DHS to let them know. I expected they would have to do an investigation since Mom pointed the finger to me and I knew it didn’t happen at my home. They took Kelsey into custody on the same day my son was on a plane on his way to his base in Kuwait. Mom and I along with my husband both got supervised visits in the DHS office for one month while she lived with the maternal grandmother. We went back to court and I hoped to get Kelsey back until the mother got some counseling or something. I also hoped that if they didn’t place Kelsey back with me they would at least leave her with the other grandmother so she would be safe. The judge ruled he could not determine the abuser so he was going to send her home. This after a DHS worker told my daughter they should give her back to see what else happened to her. It was like they were going to gamble and Kelsey lost. Kelsey went home to Mom and her now husband. We were not allowed to see her. After a few weeks my sons new wife got a couple of supervised visits and then we all got to see Kelsey for 5 hours on Aug. 27th. We were shocked at what we saw. Her spirit was gone, her hair was thinner, she had more bruises, sores in her mouth, retinal hemoraging and evident loss of weight. She had been in a car accident the week before and they tried to blame the injuries on that. However: she was in a car seat and on the opposite side of impact. She was taken to the ER at the direction of DHS, but the mother did not stay long enough for her to be seen. We called DHS with our concerns so the Mom’s dr wrote a letter to the judge saying Kelsey was having seizures and should only be with Mom. Again she is the attorneys sister. We learned after Kelsey’s death that the judge had called the attorney before the hearing and said he was giving Kelsey back so it really did not matter what testimony was given by the specialists. We told DHS if they did not get Kelsey out of that home she would be dead before her Daddy got back from Iraq. My son had made it to Ft. Benning, GA to process out of the Army and would have been home in a few days. His wife had told him she wanted a divorce while he was in Iraq (she found someone else), he had injured his back in an accident and he had an abused child so the Army was sending him home 4 weeks early. It wasn’t early enough. On Oct 11th he got the news that his only child was dead. We learned 2 days later it was blunt force trauma to the abdomen. Mom was with Kelsey all day and had a visit by the state around 1:00. When she left it was Kelsey and Mom and she reports they took a nap. Stepdad comes home and the now pregnant Mom jumps up to go pick his little girl up from school as Kelsey lays asleep. Stepdad has about 15-20 with Kelsey knowing one of his employees was going to show up any minute to look at some tires. He says he walked pass Kelsey’s room and heard a gurgle. He grabbed Kelsey and said she wasn’t breathing. Ambulances were called and Kelsey was pronounced dead at the hospital. We do not know who killed Kelsey. They are both in prison for enabling child abuse with injury. Stepdad took a 30 plea and Mom went to trial and got 27 years. She appealed, but only one thing came back to be reviewed and we have reason to believe she will not get a new trial. My son filed a civil suit against the state and from prison she filed for half the money. We again had a full day hearing and she lost that battle in Federal Court with the judge ruling he felt she most likely contributed to the abuse and possibly the death. Now we fight for other children. We are trashed by the maternal family to an extent I could never imagine. If you google Kelsey’s name on YouTube you will find more than 1,000 videos. Our family has never made one. Most are kind and generous people touched by Kelsey. Others are from the maternal family blaming us for Kelsey’s abuse and death. We don’t know who killed Kelsey, but we do know only two people had that opportunity so the mystery remains.

To journalists have written a book about Kelsey’s case. http://www.whokilledkelsey.com

Our family shared our emotion stories of the days and months following Kelsey’s death to the trial of her mother. OSBI interviews and other documented facts that should have raised a red flag are also included in Oklahoma’s highest profiled child abuse case in state history.