Sarah Shipley is a 36-year-old Pennsylvania woman charged with first-degree criminal homicide in the September 2025 death of 9-year-old Renesmay Eutsey, the child she held legal guardianship over. The Sarah Shipley case is being prosecuted in Fayette County, where District Attorney Mike Aubele is seeking the death penalty against Shipley and her partner, Kourtney Eutsey, alleging Renesmay died from prolonged abuse, malnourishment, and blunt force trauma in a home where four other children were also being starved and beaten.
How Shipley Came to Have Custody of Renesmay
Shipley is a cousin of Renesmay’s biological mother, Christina Benedetto. She and Kourtney Eutsey, a cousin of the child’s biological father, lived together on Third Street in Dunbar Borough. Children in the home called Eutsey “Mom” and Shipley “Dad.”1TribLIVE. Forever Lost: Fayette County Girl Died as She and Siblings Faded From Support System View Shipley was Renesmay’s court-ordered custodial guardian; Eutsey served as the live-in caretaker and had legally adopted at least one other child in the household.2WTAE. Renesmay Eutsey: Custodial Guardian Charged in Fayette County
The arrangement dates to 2019, after Benedetto, then 19, was arrested for child endangerment when troopers and Fayette County Children & Youth Services caseworkers found unsafe conditions in her home. She spent eight days in jail, received two years of probation, and agreed to transfer guardianship of Renesmay and a younger sibling to Shipley and Eutsey.3TribLIVE Community. Biological Mother Christina Benedetto and the Guardianship Arrangement
Five children ultimately lived in the Dunbar home, and DA Aubele confirmed that Shipley, Eutsey, or both held legal custody of all of them.1TribLIVE. Forever Lost: Fayette County Girl Died as She and Siblings Faded From Support System View Because the placements were informal kinship arrangements rather than formal foster care, Fayette County CYS had no open case and no oversight of the household.4WTAE. DA: Sibling Hospitalized, More Charges Anticipated Against Caretakers of Renesmay Eutsey
The Missing-Child Report and Discovery of Renesmay’s Body
On September 3, 2025, Kourtney Eutsey reported Renesmay missing, claiming she had run away through a cracked bedroom window. Pennsylvania State Police were called to the Dunbar home around 12:41 p.m.5WPXI. Missing Girl in Fayette County Found Dead, Woman Charged Aubele later called the timeline Eutsey offered “completely off.”6CBS News Pittsburgh. Missing Endangered 9-Year-Old Girl in Fayette County
The runaway account collapsed quickly. Other children in the home told police that Shipley and Eutsey had killed Renesmay. One child said the adults had discussed taking her body to a river “far, far away” and described seeing her placed in a tote bag.7Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fayette County: Renesmay Eutsey, Sarah Shipley, 9-Year-Old Late that night, Eutsey led troopers to a spot along the Youghiogheny River near Smithton, about 20 miles from the family’s home. Just before 4:00 a.m. on September 4, investigators recovered Renesmay’s body from the river, partially submerged inside a black garbage bag weighed down with rocks.8Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fayette County: Renesmay Eutsey
The child weighed 45 pounds. Her body carried multiple bruises and what appeared to be cigarette burns.5WPXI. Missing Girl in Fayette County Found Dead, Woman Charged An autopsy identified the cause of death as malnourishment, neglect, and blunt force trauma to the head, neck, torso, and extremities.9CBS News Pittsburgh. More Charges in Renesmay Eutsey Death
What Investigators Found About the Other Children
The four surviving children, ages 2, 3, 6, and 11, were removed from the home on September 3, 2025, and placed with non-family foster caregivers outside Fayette County.10CBS News Pittsburgh. More Charges in Death of Missing Fayette County 9-Year-Old What prosecutors and doctors described amounted to a pattern of severe, prolonged abuse.
An 11-year-old girl told investigators that Shipley and Eutsey punched, kicked, and choked her until she lost consciousness, and stepped on her stomach if she made noise afterward. She said she had her head slammed into a wall, was hit with a belt, and was denied food when she did not finish chores like cleaning dog cages, taking out garbage, and doing laundry.11Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fayette County Abuse Charges When children complained of toothaches, the complaint alleges, the women pulled their teeth with pliers rather than take them to a dentist; hospital staff later confirmed missing teeth inconsistent with normal loss.12Daily Courier. Police File Additional Charges Against Eutsey, Shipley
A 6-year-old boy in the home weighed about 24 pounds when he was found. Doctors at UPMC Children’s Hospital described his condition as “deliberate and chronic neglect” from months of starvation and warned that refeeding him carried a risk of death from refeeding syndrome.13CBS News Pittsburgh. Fayette County Child Abuse: More Charges He remained hospitalized in stable condition as of September 2025.14TribLIVE. Fayette Girl’s Death Leads to Additional Child Abuse Charges
The children were homeschooled, and prosecutors say that isolation was deliberate. At the November 2025 preliminary hearing, Dr. Margaret Russell testified that the 11-year-old girl’s vision was so impaired she could not identify letters or numbers and could not read.1TribLIVE. Forever Lost: Fayette County Girl Died as She and Siblings Faded From Support System View Aubele said the arrangement kept the children away from teachers, counselors, and other mandatory reporters.15WTAE. Renesmay Eutsey Criminal Complaint: Adoptive Mother Charged
The Charges Against Shipley
Shipley was charged with homicide and conspiracy on September 5, 2025, the day after Kourtney Eutsey was charged with criminal homicide. Before Shipley could be arraigned, first responders were called to the Third Street home after she reportedly suffered an overdose, and her arraignment was delayed until her hospital discharge.7Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fayette County: Renesmay Eutsey, Sarah Shipley, 9-Year-Old
On September 8, 2025, additional charges were filed against both women covering the abuse of the surviving children. Shipley’s charges include criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, aggravated assault, aggravated assault of a victim under 13, conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, causing injury with extreme indifference, concealing the death of a child, abuse of a corpse, conspiracy to abuse a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence, along with endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors, simple assault, and harassment tied to the treatment of the other children.16Latrobe Bulletin. Police File Additional Charges Against Sarah Shipley Kourtney Eutsey faces the same core counts plus more than two dozen additional charges related to the other children.17Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Fayette County Renesmay Eutsey Murder
Two more people were charged in April 2026. Theresa Marie Shipley, 63, Sarah Shipley’s mother and a mental health aide at Highlands Hospital classified as a mandatory reporter, was charged with endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, and failing to report suspected child abuse. Sandra Lynn Umensetter, 51, a family friend, was charged with endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person. Prosecutors said phone records placed both women at the Dunbar home repeatedly during the period when the children were in their worst condition. Both were held on $100,000 bond.18WTAE. Renesmay Eutsey Death: New Charges in Fayette County
The Death Penalty Decision
At the November 14, 2025, preliminary hearing, a judge held all charges against Shipley and Eutsey for trial and remanded both to jail.19CBS News Pittsburgh. Women Charged in Renesmay Eutsey Death to Stand Trial Aubele then filed formal notices of aggravating circumstances against each defendant on three grounds: that they knowingly created a grave risk of death to the other children in the home, that the killing was committed by means of torture, and that the victim was under 12 years old.20Observer-Reporter. Fayette County DA to Seek Death Sentence for Foster Parents Accused of Killing 9-Year-Old Girl
Pennsylvania has a moratorium on executions. Aubele addressed it directly: “I’m hopeful that we’re going to have a governor that is going to carry out death sentences. And while it is still an available punishment for the most severe cases, we will pursue it in the most severe cases. This is one of those cases.”20Observer-Reporter. Fayette County DA to Seek Death Sentence for Foster Parents Accused of Killing 9-Year-Old Girl
Where the Case Stands
Shipley and Eutsey will be tried separately. Aubele said the split was necessary to avoid mistrials that could stem from using one defendant’s statements against the other. Shipley is held without bail at the Fayette County jail; her attorney, Brent Peck, has filed defense motions including a challenge to her detention, with a hearing expected within one to two months. Her trial is nominally set for July 9, 2026, though Aubele has said he expects defense motions to push it into 2027. Eutsey’s next scheduled court date is a pretrial hearing on July 9, 2026.21Observer-Reporter. Dunbar Defendants Charged in 9-Year-Old’s Killing to Undergo Separate Trials
The Oversight Gap the Case Exposed
Because Renesmay and her siblings were placed through informal kinship guardianship, they existed outside the formal foster care system. Fayette County CYS had no open case, no home checks, and no reports on the household. Pennsylvania State Police reported no incidents at the Dunbar residence in the previous decade, though a foster parent, Chrystal Rockwell, has said publicly she reported abuse concerns to CYS in 2018 involving a child previously in Shipley and Eutsey’s care.4WTAE. DA: Sibling Hospitalized, More Charges Anticipated Against Caretakers of Renesmay Eutsey
Advocates have called the setup an example of “hidden foster care.” Cathleen Palm of the Center for Children’s Justice said children who are also not attending school can disappear from oversight entirely.1TribLIVE. Forever Lost: Fayette County Girl Died as She and Siblings Faded From Support System View
Several legislative responses have followed. Fayette County state Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa is seeking co-sponsors for a bill to create an independent Office of Child Advocate. Rep. Ryan Warner is pursuing “Renesmay’s Law,” aimed at accountability, oversight, and record-keeping in county child welfare agencies. Other proposals would require psychological screening for adults in foster or kinship homes, require children in such placements to attend public or licensed private schools unless a judge orders otherwise, and stiffen penalties for guardians convicted of abuse. At the federal level, the Foster Care Placement Transparency Act, which would require states to track informal placement arrangements, was referred to committee in September 2025 after a similar bill died in committee the year before.22TribLIVE. Child Welfare Advocates Critical of Hidden Foster Care