Who are Jennifer and Justin Keim? Illinois mom and stepdad held for 'neglect' as 38-lb disabled boy, 15, dies
MOLINE, ILLINOIS: Police in Illinois arrested 34-year-old Jennifer Keim on a first-degree murder charge on Monday, March 22, and her husband, 32-year-old Justin Keim, the next day on a felony charge of criminal abuse or neglect of a disabled person.
The pair were the mother and stepfather of a severely disabled 15-year-old boy who died last November, allegedly as a result of health complications from physical neglect. According to the Moline Police Department, the young boy died last year despite all their best efforts to save him.
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What happened in November 2020?
In a press release, police recalled that on November 3, 2020, officers responded to an area hospital where the boy had been transported to be treated for numerous ailments. Hospital staff found the child to be "extremely dehydrated, emaciated and [with] severe open wounds that had not been properly treated."
Despite the best efforts of medical staff, the child went into cardiopulmonary arrest and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The 15-year-old boy has been reportedly identified as Joseph "JJ" Hammond, who was born with severe cerebral palsy and required extraordinary care.
On Tuesday, March 23, Rock Island County State's Attorney Dora Villarreal said that although JJ was 15 years old, he weighed just 38 pounds. She added the "very careful and long investigation" into the death included "several different medical reports", none of which indicated that death was a result of natural causes. "It was a very disturbing case for law enforcement and for personnel from my office," Villarreal added.
The investigation
The death of the 15-year-old in the hospital sparked a criminal investigation, which, according to the press release, revealed a "consistent pattern of medical and physical neglect, which led to the child's death."
Over the next few months, Rock Island County Coroner's Office, the Moline Police Department, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services would initiate an investigation that would include "numerous interviews, consultations with medical professionals and an in-depth examination of the child's medical records and past medical treatment."
According to latest reports, the county coroner's office declared the child's manner of death to be complications from chronic malnutrition and dehydration due to underlying physical neglect.
Friend defends Jennifer
The mother is now being held in Rock Island County Jail on a $2 million bond and her husband is being held on a $500,000 bond, according to the news release from the Moline Police Department. Jennifer's next court date is reportedly set for April 6.
A friend of Jennifer defended her as a mother and caretaker. "I know this family intimately," Christa Axnix, Jennifer's friend since the second grade, reportedly told a local publication. "Everyone who knows Jennifer knows the hard work and dedication she put into keeping J.J. alive."
"She spent holidays alone with him in the hospital in Peoria more than one Christmas when he had pneumonia," she said. The friend also added that six years ago, she was struck with a neurological disorder that paralyzed her lower body, Jennifer was the first to visit her at the hospital. She had brought her son along that day, Axnix recalled.
She also went on about how the mother was scared of taking her son to the doctor's office or the hospitals. "At the start of the pandemic, she didn't want people in the house because it's a respiratory virus," she said. "With this disease, people die from complications, and she was terrified of that. I'm always on the side of children and, being disabled myself, I would be the first one to scream foul play. I saw firsthand how hard it was to keep JJ healthy."
'She was feeding him'
The 15-year-old reportedly died from complications from chronic malnutrition and dehydration. But Axnix says that when she saw him a couple of weeks, "he looked like he's always looked".
"I'd be the first one to tell Jennifer she needs to have him checked out. He may very well have died from malnutrition, but that doesn't mean she wasn't feeding him. Of course she was feeding him," she said. "He had weight issues and pressure sores all his life. When you don't have circulation, those sores take forever to heal. I've had them myself, and I'm much more independent than JJ."
Elaborating on his condition, she said, "He had weight, bowel, bladder and pressure-sore issues. He had been to the ER many times. She tried her best. He was a teenager, and he was in a growth spurt, and I wonder if that was part of the problem with his weight. It's not that they weren't feeding him, though."