Suffolk County indicts three generations in Bayport child abuse death
Suffolk prosecutors say 7-year-old Jor’Dynn Duncan died with about 90 injuries and a massive untreated infection after months of alleged abuse in a Bayport home.
Suffolk County prosecutors indicted Emily Kelly, her mother Barbara Renner and her daughter Elyssa Seymore after 7-year-old Jor’Dynn Duncan died in Bayport with roughly 90 injuries and a massive untreated infection, a case now raising hard questions about how a child placed through county child welfare and later granted to a caregiver could suffer for months without intervention.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said May 20 that Kelly, 50, was indicted on second-degree murder and related counts, Renner, 75, on second-degree manslaughter and related counts, and Seymore, 24, on first-degree unlawful imprisonment and related counts. Tierney said the case followed a lengthy grand jury investigation and involved allegations of months of systematic cruelty and sadistic abuse. All three defendants were arraigned and were due back in court on June 23, 2026.
The custody history deepens the scrutiny. Prosecutors say Suffolk County Child Protective Services placed Jor’Dynn with Kelly in December 2024 at Kelly’s request, and Kelly gained full custody and guardianship in April 2025. Investigators allege the abuse, restraint, injuries and lack of medical care dated back to January 2025. During the first six months of 2025, Jor’Dynn missed about 40 days of school, and Kelly allegedly used excuses that included illnesses, deaths in the family and a trip to Disney World to explain the absences.
The final emergency call came around 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2025, when Kelly allegedly called 911 to report that Jor’Dynn was in cardiac arrest. Paramedics took her to NYU Langone Hospital-Suffolk, where she was pronounced dead. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner documented about 90 injuries on the child’s body and ruled the cause of death to be a massive untreated infection caused by sharp force injuries.
Investigators also said they recovered photos and videos from Kelly’s cellphone and cloud accounts that appeared to document restraint, injuries and a lack of medical treatment. Jor’Dynn Rose Duncan, born March 22, 2018, was memorialized with visitation and services at Raynor & D’Andrea Funeral Home in Bayport in February 2026, after a death that now sits at the center of Suffolk County’s child-protection reckoning.
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