Early one day last year, Kellie Elliott stopped by her estranged husband Shane’s house outside Camden in western Ohio. Her 13-year-old son, Caleb, and 10-year-old daughter, Gracie, had spent the weekend there, but they hadn’t turned up for school that snowy morning of 25 January 2022.
Elliott didn’t dare approach the front door because she was fearful of Shane, whom she was divorcing. He had subjected her and her children to violent outbursts for years, behavior which she had reported to authorities without meaningful effect.
Instead, she honked her car horn from the driveway in an attempt to get her children’s attention and waited for the police, whom she had already called, to show up.
“When [the police] came, they walked around the house several times,” Elliott recalled. “They pinged [Caleb’s and Gracie’s phones] so we knew they were inside. I told them to break down the door and go in.”
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