Photos, video add new detail to alleged ‘torture’ by Fairview Heights foster family
St. Clair County prosecutors used photos and videos taken from a seized cellphone to chronicle a year-long pattern of abuse of an 18-year-old ward of the state at the hands of her foster mother, who now stands accused of her murder.
The presentation given during a pretrial detention hearing Thursday layered new details onto the alleged abuse, which included punishment with a “whooping stick” and forcing the mentally-ill victim to wear a mask that was soiled with human excrement over her nose and mouth.
Shemeka Williams, 46, and her mother Cornelia Reid, 64, face numerous felony charges, including first-degree murder, in the death of Mackenzi Felmlee, 18, on May 11, 2024.
Reid, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, was ordered by Judge Sara Rice to be held at the St. Clair County Jail until her trial. Williams is scheduled for a similar hearing in Rice’s courtroom Friday.
Patrick Sullivan, Reid’s attorney, said in an email statement to the BND that his client denies the allegations. He argued that wounds depicted in photos of Felmlee were self-inflicted and that Reid wasn’t charged with the girl’s care – Williams, her daughter, was the foster mother.
In all the photo and video evidence presented Thursday, Reid appeared only once, he said.
“These accusations are baseless, unsupported by evidence, and we are confident the truth will come to light in a court of law,” Sullivan wrote. “We urge the public to withhold judgment until a jury is given the opportunity to fully exonerate her by acquitting her of all charges.”
Fairview Heights Police were called to Williams’ home at 6 Patricia Drive at 2:45 a.m. on the day of Felmlee’s death. According to a police department release issued Monday, officers and medical staff observed significant bruising and injuries in various stages of healing on Felmlee’s body, prompting the launch of “an immediate and comprehensive investigation” into her death.
A St. Clair County grand jury last Friday charged Williams and Reid each with:
Involuntary manslaughter
3 counts of domestic battery
2 counts of intimidation
Unlawful restraint
2 counts of misdemeanor domestic battery
Soiled masks
Attorneys for both sides presented evidence which showed Felmlee had an eating disorder and issues controlling bodily functions like urination and defecation.
In police interviews, Williams’ 14-year-old biological daughter said Felmlee wore multiple pairs of pants and had plastic bags tied around her legs to prevent urine from soaking through. She said Reid tied the bags around Felmlee’s legs on at least one occasion.
The plastic bags, prosecuting attorney Bernadette Schrempp argued, likely led to Felmlee’s death. An autopsy report showed that pulmonary embolism through acute venous thrombosis was a leading cause of Felmlee’s death, specifically by a tourniquet effect. Felmlee was also dehydrated, according to the report presented by Schrempp.
Schrempp also said the report showed that at the time of death, Felmlee was 90 pounds. Two years earlier, in 2022, she weighed 130 pounds, according to medical records presented by Schrempp. She also pointed out that Felmlee did not have a history of blood clots, which are the cause of pulmonary embolisms, in any medical lab tests done prior to her death.
Images and video captured on Williams’ cellphone in the months leading up to Felmlee’s death show multiple occasions in which she was made to wear material covered in either feces, urine or both, the prosecutor said.
Williams’ 14-year-old daughter told police that on at least one occasion, Felmlee was made to wear the mask for hours.
Timeline of alleged abuse
All of the footage presented during the detention hearing came from Williams’ cellphone. Schrempp said Williams appears to predominantly be the one speaking except in one instance where Williams and Reid can be heard speaking together as Felmlee pulls the soiled underwear over her face.
The dated photos and videos ranged from May 2023 to Felmlee’s death in May 2024. They document a chronology of alleged abuses:
May 15, 2023: The earliest-recorded video presented during the hearing shows Felmlee being made to face a wall and repeat, “I am somebody.”
May 31, 2023: Video shows Felmlee facing the same wall, this time repeating, “I am a doof, I hate myself.”
June 1, 2023: A voice from someone other than Felmlee can be heard in the background saying, “I am smarter than I believe.” Felmlee is then hit multiple times and made to say, “It is not good to manipulate,” after which Williams says, “Good job. Are you crying?” Felmlee responds, “No, ma’am.”
July 16, 2023: Felmlee can be heard crying and asking for “real food.” In response, a voice says to Felmlee that she has to eat the liquid food that the doctor prescribed. Another video shows Felmlee eating liquid food off her hand, which was either Ensure or Boost nutritional shakes, Schrempp said. Felmlee was prescribed the shakes because she was vomiting solid foods, Williams said in the video.
Aug. 15, 2023: A text from Williams’ phone states “I was whooping (Felmlee’s) ass. She’s pretending to have bulimia.” It’s not clear who the text was sent to.
November 2023: Felmlee asks for a drink of water, but an off-camera voice denies the request saying “with the battle of going back and forth, we’re limiting liquids until she knows when she has to potty, got it?” Felmlee responds “yes ma’am.”
March 3, 2024: Felmlee is told to put soiled underwear into a COVID-19 mask, then put it over her face, which she did. A photo from the same date shows Felmlee wearing a piece of fabric over her nose and mouth that had soiled material on it. Reid can be seen in the background.
May 1, 2024: A photo shows a badly injured Felmlee with her head covered in blood and deeply bruised.
May 2, 2024: A photo shows that Felmlee also had an abrasion on her shoulder and upper arm.
Sullivan said Felmlee’s injuries were self-inflicted, but Williams’ daughter told police in a statement that Reid had caused the injury using the “whooping stick,” which comprised three paint stirring sticks tied together. Williams’ daughter also said Reid would pour hot sauce on wounds as punishment, according to police interview transcripts cited by Schrempp.
May 3, 2024: A video shows Felmlee telling Williams “Please don’t hurt me.” Williams responds by asking if Felmlee was “playing crazy” since she had said a different name prior to recording.
A text from Williams, also on May 3, 2024, said she did not want to get in trouble for Felmlee’s bruises. “I have (my daughter) to worry about,” she said.
May 11, 2024, the day Felmlee died: Williams’ teen-aged daughter was recording video at around 1:40 a.m., when Felmlee had fallen to the bottom of a staircase.
In the video, Williams said Felmlee had thrown herself down the stairs. Felmlee can be seen lying on her back with her legs folded to her side. Williams tries to move a leg straight, but it goes back into a folded position.
Williams then lifts Felmlee up so that she isn’t on the floor. Felmlee slowly falls into her own lap as Williams puts a blanket over her.
Another video from sometime later that night shows Felmlee biting onto blue railing while making a repeated grunting sound. “She’s making sexual sounds,” Williams said, before adding that Felmlee “threw her head against the wall.”
Sullivan said Reid was not present at the house until she was called early in the morning of May 11, 2024. When Reid arrived, she called 911 and performed CPR with chest compressions on Felmlee, Sullivan said. Felmlee was later pronounced dead at Memorial Hospital in Belleville.
Prior DCFS complaints
Reid had also previously cared for children but “retired” from the foster system, Sullivan told the judge. Schrempp presented reports detailing abuse complaints against Reid as evidence in Thursday’s pretrial hearing, which Sullivan argued are not relevant to the current case.
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services had already deemed the complaints “unfounded.” Judge Rice allowed Schrempp to list them, however.
One incident involved a foster child referred to only as J.H., who was placed with Reid from June 2019 to December 2019. J.H. alleged Reid hit them multiple times, and said there were various incidents where they were stabbed with pens to the point that they bled.
In another, Reid allegedly hit J.H. with a belt while they had to use the bathroom. J.H. then defecated and was not allowed to clean themselves and had to sleep in soiled underwear, Schrempp said.
Another incident alleged Williams forced Felmlee and a foster child referred to as D.E. to clean the bathroom. If the cleaning was not satisfactory, the pair would not be allowed to shower for days, Schrempp said.
This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 6:28 PM.
