Kane McWilliams was born on December 20th, 2010, in Colorado to parents Elisha McWilliams Panky and Leland Panky. Some initial reports indicated that Leland was Kaden’s stepfather, but information that would emerge later on in the investigation proved otherwise. Elisha and Leland were married in 2014, after which Kaden’s younger sister was born. However, things were not happy in the Panky household.
In November of 2017, Leland began beating Elisha. According to their landlord, Elisha had recently changed from being a highly outgoing person to a hermit who just wanted to stay locked inside her house. The family was ultimately evicted in early 2018, after which they began staying in various area hotels.
During the 2017–2018 school year, Kaden attended Ellis Elementary School. His principal, Nicole Whiteman, described him as a hard worker who did well academically, who was always positive and caring, and who lived the Ellis core value of integrity. She remembered him fondly.
“At Ellis, Kaden stood out from others from the moment he walked through the school doors every morning with a huge smile on his face. His smile and eyes showed how kind and sweet he was at the core. Other students wanted to be his friend and looked to Kaden for what to do next.”
According to his teacher, Christina Hafler, he was always an incredibly bright, shining student.
“He was always so kind. He was so popular. He would walk into the cafeteria and kids would say, ‘Kaden, come sit by me!’ Everybody was always so excited to see him. He was always smiling and such a pleasure to have in class.”
Kaden last attended school on May 24, 2018, even though the school year did not officially end until May 31st. In August of 2018, Elisha notified Kaden’s school that he would not be coming back. In fact, she stated that she was going to homeschool him. This detail would become very important later in the story.
According to her Facebook page, Elisha worked for IHS Markit, which later merged with S&P Global. Per their website, the company is the world’s foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, and analytics in the global capital and commodity markets. It is unclear what exactly Elisha did in her role, but she was employed as a temporary worker. Elisha was contracted to work for the company through April of 2018, but her contract was later extended until August. Employees of the company were allowed to work from home, but Elisha worked at the company’s satellite office in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, about 95 percent of the time. When pressed by others on why she came into the office so frequently, Elisha replied that she would rather work in the office than at home. In fact, Elisha rarely left the office at all. Co-workers claimed that she was there all of the time, almost every day, and would eat lunch at her desk, never leaving to get takeout or to run errands. According to one co-worker, Elisha was often still sitting there long after everyone else had left for the day.
After Elisha was involved in a car accident, another temporary worker began giving her rides home, where they would engage in small talk during the commute. During one of those conversations, Elisha stated that her husband Leland was a stay-at-home dad and that she was the sole provider of income for their family of four.
On December 21st of 2018, officers and detectives with the Aurora Police Department responded to a call at the Aurora Extended Stay Hotel, located at 14095 East Evans Avenue, regarding a domestic violence complaint. There, they were met by 41-year-old Elisha McWilliams Panky, who had made the emergency call regarding her husband Leland. Leland, however, was not actually staying at the same hotel as her; he was renting a room at the TownePlace Suites located at 3699 South Monaco Parkway in Denver.
By means of their investigation, authorities were able to establish that the couple had two children: a baby girl, whose name has not been released due to her age, and a seven-year-old boy named Kaden McWilliams. When asked about the current whereabouts of the two children, Elisha informed the detectives that they were with their father, Leland.
While speaking with Elisha in her hotel room, a substance suspected to be heroin was observed by officers. As such, the room was immediately secured, and a search warrant was obtained by the Aurora Police Department. While Elisha was being transported to the police station for questioning, the execution of the search warrant led detectives to the suspected heroin. Detectives also discovered a business card for a public storage facility located at 5005 East Evans Avenue in Denver. An access code was written clearly on the back of the card. Detective Brandon Meadows contacted the storage facility and was advised that Elisha had been renting that specific storage unit since May 17th of 2018. After the search of Elisha’s room had concluded, it was locked and secured.
That same day, both Denver and Aurora police officers responded to the TownePlace Suites to speak with Leland Panky. Officers located Leland in the parking lot as he was getting into a black 2009 BMW. Leland had an active domestic violence arrest warrant listed on the National Crime Information Center database, with Elisha listed as the victim. As such, he was immediately taken into custody for questioning, and his vehicle was towed to the Denver Police Impound Lot. A cursory search of his BMW yielded a half-ounce of crystal methamphetamine.
While in custody, officers asked him repeatedly about the whereabouts of his children, given Elisha’s claim that they were with him. Leland initially claimed that one of his children was at a daycare center located near I-225 and Parker Road, but he quickly changed the subject and actively avoided answering any direct questions about Kaden. Eventually, Leland suggested that Kaden was actually with Elisha. Due to the active domestic violence warrant, he was ultimately placed under arrest and transported to the Aurora Police Department.
The next part of the story is somewhat convoluted because a significant amount of information has been heavily redacted from the official law enforcement reports. On December 21st, Aurora Police Detective Jeffrey Prince interviewed a 24-year-old woman who claimed that Leland had told her that he had lost his son three weeks prior. According to this woman, whose name was redacted from files, Leland told her that it was simply too much to handle, that he had not grieved properly, and that he needed to get help from someone. She told Detective Prince that Leland told her that her family could simply have his storage unit, and later stated that he did not want anything to do with it because it contained too many memories.
The following details are also heavily redacted, but the core of what was occurring can be deduced based on clues provided in the official affidavit. Aurora police officers responded to the Parker Learning Center, located at 3104 South Parker Road in Aurora. There, they met with an employee and discovered that Elisha and Leland’s young daughter was indeed at the location. The employee advised the officers that Leland had spoken to the staff on November 29th. Allegedly, on that date, Leland said that he wanted his daughter to be social with the other kids at the center because she had recently lost her brother.
Meanwhile, both Elisha and Leland were sitting in separate rooms at the Aurora Police Department being grilled by investigators about the exact whereabouts of Kaden, after which they both asked for a lawyer.
On December 23rd, Detective Meadows of the Aurora Police Department prepared a search warrant for the couple’s storage unit on East Evans Avenue, which was subsequently approved by a judge. That same day, detectives with the Crimes Against Children Unit responded to the storage unit. In addition, two canine handlers and their partners from the Search and Rescue Dogs of the United States responded to assist. Both canine teams were deploying trained cadaver dogs.
At approximately 9:05 a.m., an employee at the storage facility removed the lock from Elisha and Leland’s unit. At around 9:59 that same morning, detectives raised the metal rolling door and began their search. Numerous photographs were taken before anyone physically entered the unit.
At a glance, the unit contained a few plastic storage totes, a large pile of clothing, and miscellaneous items located toward the back. Closer to the door, detectives found several gallon-sized water bottles and a couple of partially empty bags of Quikrete brand concrete. Granular pieces of premixed concrete covered much of the floor of the unit. Along the eastern side was a rectangular-shaped object that was tightly wrapped with multiple layers of black trash bags and silver duct tape. The object was roughly two to three feet tall and two feet across.
Canine handlers Kathy Bryant and Melissa Kint both deployed their canine partners, Sam and Hawk, within the open storage unit, but initially, neither canine alerted to any odors. Detective Patrick McGinty began the physical search of the unit by cutting away the layers of black plastic from the rectangular-shaped object. Each layer was tightly wrapped against the next interior layer, and many layers contained heavy duct tape. After he removed several layers, he began to detect a strong odor. After the canines were deployed a second time, both showed a noticeable change in behavior and intense interest in the rectangular-shaped object. Both handlers advised that their canine partners had displayed their individual trained indication, which signaled the undeniable presence of the odor of human remains.
Based on this new information learned during the brief search, detectives immediately halted their efforts and secured the scene pending the arrival of homicide detectives from the Denver Police Department. After obtaining information from the members of the Aurora Police Department, Denver Homicide Detective Carrie Johnson responded to the Denver Police Department headquarters and authored another search warrant specifically for the storage unit, which was signed by Judge Olympia Faye at 2:53 p.m. that same day.
At around 3:00 p.m., Detectives Marty Smith and Carrie Johnson entered the unit with their new search warrant. The unit contained numerous items of evidentiary value that were carefully measured, photographed, and collected as evidence. Among those items found was a large plastic dog crate with a solid block of cement inside it. Denver Police Department bomb technician Kurt Peterson x-rayed the dog crate; however, the x-rays were completely inconclusive as to whether anything was contained inside the block of cement. As such, the entire dog crate was transported directly to the Denver Medical Examiner’s office.
Numerous bags of Quikrete and the large bottles of water were collected as evidence. As mentioned prior, the Quikrete mixture was prevalent on the floor of the unit and appeared to have been mixed and placed inside of the dog crate. At 7:45 p.m., the Denver Police Department crime lab and detectives finished collecting the evidence that was in plain view. At 8:00 p.m., Detective Smith secured the door and placed a police lock on the unit.
On Christmas Eve, while the citizens of Denver were out celebrating with their families, the Denver Medical Examiner’s office identified and removed the remains of what appeared to be an adolescent from the block of cement. The body was severely decomposed, and a visual identification could not be made. Later that same day, a third search warrant for the storage unit was approved and signed by a judge. Detective Smith from the Denver Police Department crime lab completed the search and documented the contents of the unit in its entirety.
On December 29th, at 3:00 in the afternoon, Aurora Police Sergeant John Kessler contacted Detective Smith of the Denver Police Department and advised him that officers were currently at the Aurora Extended Stay Hotel with a female witness who claimed to have direct information about a seven-year-old boy who had been killed and placed into a dog crate. Aurora Police Officer Stacy Sparks, who was involved and familiar with the case, was already on location and meeting with the reporting party. Also present were Officers Nick Langdon and Jason Weber. After Officer Sparks spoke with the witness, whose name has also been redacted, she was sure that she had all of the information pertaining to the case.
At 3:12 p.m., Officer Nick Langdon contacted Detective Smith. He stated that the witness had been staying at the Aurora Extended Stay Hotel with Elisha Panky, and that Elisha had explicitly told her that a little boy died inside of an animal carrier and was currently located in her storage unit. At approximately 4:00 p.m., Detective Smith arrived at the hotel and met with the witness, who agreed to go to the Denver Police Department headquarters for a formal interview.
At 6:51 p.m., Detective Smith began a video-recorded interview with the witness. She stated that she had met Elisha at the Arapahoe County Jail on December 22nd. They were both housed in the same cell block, shared regular conversations with each other, and were released at the exact same time on December 24th. Yes, even though a body had been found inside of her storage unit, Elisha was initially released from jail.
While they were in jail together, Elisha allegedly told the witness that her son was missing and that her husband, Leland, was the last person her son was known to be with. When they were released on December 24th, the witness went to stay with Elisha at the hotel after only two days of knowing one another. The hotel room was apparently already prepaid. The witness shared that she was with Elisha at the Arapahoe County Courthouse when detectives showed up, took a saliva sample from her, and handed her a piece of paper indicating that she was a suspect in her son’s death.
The witness testified that the previous day, around three or four in the afternoon, Elisha finally broke down and told her that the little boy had died in the dog crate. Elisha shared with her that her husband and the two children were staying at the hotel, but she could not exactly remember where the hotel was located. She told the witness that Leland would regularly tell the boy to go into the dog crate, and she would do the exact same thing whenever she needed to take a shower.
Allegedly, the little boy was in the dog crate in late July, and Leland had put heavy blankets on top of the dog crate. Elisha told the woman that she heard her son cry out that he was hot and thirsty, but rather than help her own son, she just stayed in bed. She said that the following morning, she got up and found that the little boy had died, possibly of suffocation. Leland also checked on his son to verify that he was indeed dead.
According to the witness, Elisha took the dog crate with the little boy still inside and put it in their car. Afterward, they drove directly to a store and bought concrete and industrial-strength trash bags. Elisha told the woman that they then drove to the storage unit, poured concrete directly into the carrier over the boy, and wrapped it securely in trash bags.
As a result of the witness’s sworn testimony, an arrest warrant for child abuse resulting in death was prepared by Detective Smith. On January 2nd, 2019, Elisha Panky turned herself into the Denver Police Department and was placed under arrest and held in the Denver City Jail.
On January 7th, 2019, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann announced the filing of formal charges against Elisha Panky in connection with the death of Kaden McWilliams. She was officially charged with one count of child abuse resulting in death and one count of abuse of a corpse. In a press release, D.A. McCann released a statement.
“Thanks to the tenacious work by both the Aurora and Denver police departments, we now know that young Kaden was not only missing for several months, he was no longer alive. This is a terrible tragedy for the community. The community now knows that a little boy was not only missing for seven months, he had in fact died. While this case will take time to resolve, it will take even longer for our community to learn and heal.”
On January 8th, Denver District Attorney Investigator Teresa Wirtz spoke with an employee of the storage facility. The employee advised the investigator that on May 17th, 2018, Elisha Panky opened an account with their company and was given access to the Evans lot and a storage unit. According to the employee, Elisha was provided with a unique access code that allowed her entry into the Evans lot via the front access gate between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. When the unit was overdue on rent, the access code was temporarily deactivated.
DNA samples from Elisha and Leland were compared to a DNA profile that was obtained from the postmortem samples taken from the juvenile encased in the concrete. On January 10th, forensic scientist Eric Duvall with the Denver Police Department crime lab determined that Leland and Elisha Panky were, in fact, the biological parents of the adolescent found encased in the concrete block. It was officially Kaden McWilliams.
On January 15th, Denver Police Department crime scene investigator Michael Bush downloaded the Evans lot surveillance videos for the dates of May 17th, 2018, through December 23rd, 2018. During that roughly seven-month period, both Leland and Elisha were caught on camera numerous times, both together and separately, accessing the gate and the storage unit, as well as paying their rent at the facility’s office.
On January 20th, Detective Smith interviewed Leland at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office with his lawyers present. During that interview, Leland completely denied having a key to the storage unit. He stated that he only had access when the couple first moved their belongings into the unit after they had been kicked out of the place where they were living. Leland continued, claiming that after he and Elisha separated, which he alleged was before Kaden got out of school, he no longer had a key and he never accessed or entered the storage unit again. However, video surveillance directly caught Leland entering the lot via Elisha’s code on September 27th, 2018. He was there for roughly 13 minutes.
On February 28th, the Denver Coroner’s office released the autopsy report for Kaden McWilliams. The report indicated that on December 24th, 2018, Dr. Meredith Frank began the autopsy process. According to the report, in Dr. Frank’s opinion, Kaden McWilliams died as a result of homicide by undetermined means, with child maltreatment serving as a significant contributing condition. Dr. Frank also noted the following details.
The postmortem examination revealed severe emaciation of the body, consistent with a malnourished or deprived state. Seven-year-old Kaden only weighed 27 pounds. There were numerous injuries of the head, torso, and extremities, some of which showed clear evidence of healing. It was also possible that Kaden experienced complications of injuries such as infection or sepsis. He may have also suffered a component of asphyxia or hyperthermia, which could not be definitively confirmed. A test revealed metabolites in Kaden’s liver tissue. Dr. Frank determined that given the highly suspicious nature of his death, the findings of the autopsy, and the fact that Kaden was a young child who was entirely dependent on others for his care, the manner of death was a homicide.
On March 15th, Elisha Panky was interviewed at the Denver Police Department headquarters by Detective Smith. Also present were D.A. Joe Morales and both of Elisha’s lawyers. Elisha revealed the following information.
Near the end of May 2018, the family all moved into a room at the InTown Suites located at 2900 West Hampden Avenue in Sheridan, Colorado. Elisha was still working full-time and would leave the room at around 6:30 a.m. and return home about 12 hours later. She shared that Leland was solely responsible for the care of Kaden and his little sister. She stated that she was well aware that her husband was mistreating Kaden after they moved into the InTown Suites. She also knew that Leland was actively choosing not to feed him.
Around July 11th, 2018, three days prior to Kaden’s death, Elisha was taking a nap when she awoke to Leland yelling. She observed Leland holding Kaden by the neck up against the wall. The little boy’s feet were completely off the ground. Afterward, Leland took Kaden to the bathroom, where Elisha claimed she heard a ruckus, describing what sounded like objects hitting the walls. She claimed that she never heard Kaden cry out in pain, or cry at all for that matter.
Leland then left the little boy in the bathroom with the door closed. He turned to Elisha and told her something cryptic: that they could not save both children, and that they could take Kaden to the mountains to bury him. Elisha said that a few days prior to his death, Leland kept Kaden confined inside of the dog crate. Elisha confirmed that on the day they found her son dead, they purchased Quikrete, trash bags, and water. They drove Kaden’s body to their storage unit, mixed the concrete, and poured it directly into the crate. It should be noted that even though Elisha claimed that Kaden died in mid-July, authorities believed that he was killed in May, around the same time that she pulled him from school.
On March 29th, the Denver Coroner’s office provided Detective Smith with a forensic anthropology report, which was completed by Dr. Christine Pink and indicated the following antemortem injuries. Injuries in different stages of healing were present on the cranium and lower right arm. The right forearm had a fracture that had been healing for 40 to 50 days. There was a nasal bone fracture with evidence of healing at the time of death, with new bone formation present. According to Dr. Pink, bone formation typically occurs in children by 10 to 14 days after an injury. Injuries to the frontal bone, nasal bones, and right orbit were highly consistent with blunt force trauma. These injuries were the result of at least one blow; however, due to the active nature of healing and the lack of intersecting fractures, separate instances of traumatic injury could not be ruled out.
On May 24th, 2019, Detective Smith requested a warrant for the arrest of Leland Panky for the offense of first-degree homicide, child abuse resulting in death, and tampering with a deceased human body. In January of 2020, prosecutors reached a plea deal with Leland, dropping his first-degree homicide charge in exchange for the lesser charge of child abuse resulting in death and tampering with a deceased human. He was sentenced to 72 years in prison.
As a result of her own plea deal, Elisha Panky was sentenced to 32 years in prison plus five years of mandatory parole for her role in Kaden’s death. Explaining the decision, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann pointed to the unknown cause of death for Kaden.
“We had to take into account the risk of going to trial on first-degree homicide charges when the exact cause of death was not determined.”
Prosecutors were also wary of subjecting Kaden’s loved ones, as well as a judge and jury, to a trial that would endlessly revisit the agonizing details of the case, which officials described as one of the most horrific cases they had ever seen. Leland Panky’s crimes, they said, were intentional, deliberate, calculated, callous, self-serving, and completely deprived of any sense of humanity or human kindness.
During sentencing, Elisha’s sister, Sarah Cruz, fondly remembered her nephew.
“I was in the room when Kaden was born. I saw his sweet little face and was immediately smitten. As Kaden grew, it became apparent that he had a very old soul. He was a sweet child and gentle, and our entire family fell in love with him.”
Ms. Cruz is now the legal guardian of Kaden’s younger sister, whom she describes as a miracle and a true survivor.
In the wake of Kaden’s death, his former teacher, Christina Hafler, started a GoFundMe page to set up a memorial to honor the little boy, with a goal of incorporating Kaden’s memory into a public art project planned to be displayed on the side of Ellis Elementary, alongside a dedicated bench or tree. The fundraiser ultimately closed after raising 6,210 dollars.
By September of 2019, the memorial was completed. A 21-foot mural off of Dahlia Street in Denver features a beautiful tree and a bumblebee because Kaden deeply enjoyed nature. There is also a dinosaur painted there, too. A bright orange bench outside of the school’s entrance was also dedicated to Kaden, as well as a tree that was planted nearby in his honor.
Brooke Webb didn’t know Kaden McWilliams personally, but her daughter went to school with him and saw him regularly in the hallways of Ellis Elementary.
“The finishing touches on a work of art with so much meaning hit way too close to home for me, so I decided that, you know, we should do some sort of a memorial.”
His death touched the entire community. It was devastating for the teachers, the parents, and the neighborhood because if anyone had known that he was facing that kind of torture and abuse, people would have wanted to step in and do something to help. Webb still wanted to do something for a little boy who seemed to be entirely forgotten in life and in death. Police believe he was missing for several months before his body was found, so she started actively raising money for a memorial outside the school he loved.
“I wanted, you know, the bench and the tree, and for the kids that remember Kaden and knew Kaden, that they can have, you know, peace while they’re here at school.”
His classmates even gave their personal input on the mural that would be dedicated to the smiling boy with a love of nature. Students met directly with the artists and helped paint the design they inspired.
“It is incredibly joyful. I think about the specific things in it that were very special to Kaden, and then I see lots of colors representing so much joy and diversity in our own school, and it really feels very student-centered.”
A teacher at Ellis wants people to feel that profound joy when they look at the mural and when they remember Kaden.
“I hope that when people see the mural and see the bench, they will remember—obviously remember Kaden and the amazing kid that he was—and also think about the care and the joy that we have at our school.”
Brooke Webb, as a parent of an Ellis Elementary student, reached out to legislators in the hope of changing Safe Haven laws to include older children. She said many people are familiar with the concept of safely dropping a baby off at a fire station if they are completely unable to care for it, and she believes there is a clear way to put in place a similar protective policy for older kids. Brooke Webb has been a champion for Kaden’s cause and also runs the Facebook group “Justice for Kaden McWilliams,” which kept its followers updated as Kaden’s legal case progressed.
If you suspect that a child is being mistreated, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline. All calls are completely toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. You could be the person to save a child just like Kaden McWilliams.
