Justice says ongoing investigation into death of 14-year-old will determine what went wrong

During Gov. Jim Justice's Friday, May 24, 2024 press briefing, he said an ongoing investigation will try to determine if West Virginia State Police or Child Protective Services could have done more to intervene before the death of a Boone County teen. (Screenshot from Gov. Jim Justice’s briefing)

Questions remain about what went wrong in the state’s interaction with 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller before she was found dead “in a skeletal state” in her Boone County home.

On Friday, Gov. Jim Justice said an ongoing investigation will try to determine if West Virginia State Police or Child Protective Services could have done more to intervene before the child’s death. 

The Republican governor acknowledged that people “could be fired” as a result, but couldn’t comment on specifics of the investigation. 

“There’s a good part that I’m not supposed to tell,” Justice said during his virtual briefing. “I care about proper justice for Kynnedi.”

Police discovered the girl’s emaciated body in April. Her mother and two grandparents have been charged with felony child neglect causing death. The teen was being homeschooled. 

West Virginia State Police shared a document and audio saying that they made a referral to CPS about the girl in March 2023.

The Department of Human Services, which oversees CPS, said that the WVSP referral was never made and cannot be located within department records. 

While WVSP hasn’t released a public statement about the case, WSAZ reported that state police confirmed that a trooper made the CPS referral in person at the Boone County health department. 

“There’s an officer that says that he drove … I guess his personal vehicle or whatever … and he drove to the offices and went in and made that report,” Justice said during his virtual briefing. “At the same time, there’s no evidence that I can uncover so far that a report was made.”

“There’s nothing that triggered [DoHS] to go to the house,” he added.

Justice also acknowledged that he had conversations with DoHS about their incomplete database system, known as WV PATH. The system was meant to allow employees “to more efficiently track and view data” and improve child welfare outcomes. 

Lawmakers said during the legislative session that DoHS hadn’t finished PATH’s implementation despite a 2017 contract for it. The agency spent $73 million on the project as of 2023, when it was expected to be completed. 

“There will be real improvements that will be made, but it can’t help Kynnedi,” Justice said. “We will absolutely make improvements and clean up deficiencies.”

DoHS has shared limited, then contradictory, information about the case, leading Justice to walk back his comments that CPS knew nothing about Kynnedi prior to her death. 

Cynthia Persily, DoHS secretary, said in a statement on May 21 that DoHS wasn’t “involved in the child’s life,” then went on to say that previous CPS cases in 2009 and 2017 to the same home “[had] nothing to do with the death of this young lady.”

Neighbors also said that they called CPS about Kynnedi prior to her death. 

As DoHS has stonewalled information about the case, Justice touted his administration’s transparency and encouraged reporters to contact “any and everybody who you want to contact and ask whatever questions because that’s the way it needs to be.”

He told reporters, “There’s no point in asking me about this every 15 minutes because I don’t have these reports coming to me every 15 minutes. We will continue to dig and continue to investigate in every way.”

Justice also encouraged people who suspect child abuse or neglect to call the Centrailized Intake for Abuse Neglect Hotline at 1-800-352-6513.

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