BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. (TCN) — A mother will spend up to life in prison in connection with the death of her 14-year-old daughter, whose emaciated body was found inside their home in 2024.
The Associated Press reports Julie Miller, 51, pleaded guilty to death of a child by parent, guardian, or custodian in November 2025. She was sentenced Feb. 25 and will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by the outlet, Kynnedi Miller, 14, had an eating disorder and her mother had not sought medical care for her in four years. She weighed 58 pounds when she was found and had spent the last days of her life on a bathroom floor, prosecutors say.
At the sentencing, Boone County Circuit Judge Stacy Nowicki-Eldridge said, “This child literally starved to death.”
WSFA reported authorities were dispatched to a home on April 17, 2024, for a report of a teen in cardiac arrest. Responding deputies discovered Kynnedi Miller in an emaciated, skeletal state and described her appearance as shocking. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Donna Stone, Kynnedi Miller’s grandmother, told authorities the child had not been outside the house more than two times in the last four years and had not attended school since early 2020.
The Coal Valley News reports Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Holstein initially thought it was a case of deliberate starvation but later said, “There may have been some sort of eating disorder going on. But as her condition worsened … you just cannot imagine just a skeleton, almost to where skin is just draped over it, to where you don’t think that could have even been a living person. … It would have been very obvious that she needed medical care, and without that medical care, she was going to die. Her mom made a choice to not get medical care for her. All it took was a phone call.”
The AP reports Miller’s death prompted an audit about whether law enforcement or child protective services could have intervened. State police were summoned in March 2023 to check on her but reportedly did not find reason to believe she was being abused. The responding officer made an informal recommendation that she seek mental health services. No follow-up checks were made.
An investigation determined Julie Miller began homeschooling her child in February 2021, Law & Crime reports. She reportedly told school officials she was concerned her daughter would contract COVID-19 and bring it home and spread it to her grandparents. Under West Virginia state code, Miller was required to turn in assessments for her daughter but never did.
Kynnedi Miller’s grandfather Jerry Stone was found incompetent to stand trial due to declining mental ability, according to the AP, and Donna Stone is set to go to trial in March on a charge of child neglect resulting in death.
MORE:
