Missing 4-year-old Serenity Ann McKinney, last seen alive in Kentucky on Christmas Eve two years ago, has been found dead, and the girl’s mother and her boyfriend have been charged with murder.
Despite arrests being made, the murder investigation remains ongoing, as it wasn’t reported until earlier this month that other concerned family members hadn’t seen the girl since Dec. 24, 2020.
Kentucky State Police said detectives located the body of the 4-year-old around 2 p.m. Friday in a wooded area near the 1300 block of Skyview Road in West Point near the Jefferson-Bullitt county line.
The girl’s mother, 21-year-old Catherine McKinney, and her boyfriend, 26-year-old Dakota Hill, both from Shepherdsville, were already in custody at the Shelby County Detention Center after being charged for custodial interference. They were arrested in Kansas last week and extradited back to Kentucky.
On Feb. 3, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office revealed that concerned family members contacted authorities after not seeing McKinney in over a year. They reported last seeing McKinney alive on Dec. 24, 2020.
Kentucky State Police said they were contacted by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 2 requesting assistance with an investigation of a missing person case of a 4-year-old girl who had last been seen in December 2020. The case remains under investigation by Kentucky State Police Post 4 detectives.
