Drugged Out Parents Turn Son Into Concrete Statue
Kaden McWilliams was born on December 20, 2010, in Colorado to parents Elisha McWilliams Panky and Leland Panky. Some reports indicated that Leland was Kaden’s stepfather, but information surfaced later in the investigation proving otherwise. Elisha and Leland married in 2014, after which Kaden’s sister was born. However, the household was far from happy. In November 2017, Leland began abusing Elisha. According to their landlord, Elisha changed from being an outgoing person into a hermit who preferred to stay inside the house. The family was evicted in early 2018, after which they began staying in area hotels.
During the 2017–2018 school year, Kaden attended Ellis Elementary School. His principal, Nicole Whiteman, described him as a hard worker who performed well academically and lived by the school’s core value of integrity. She noted that Kaden stood out the moment he walked through the doors every morning with a huge smile. His teacher, Christina Hafler, echoed this sentiment, describing him as a bright, kind, and popular student whom other children loved to be around.
Kaden last attended school on May 24, 2018, even though the school year did not officially end until May 31. In August 2018, Elisha notified the school that Kaden would not be returning, claiming she intended to homeschool him. This decision would later prove significant. Elisha worked as a temporary employee for IHS Markit (which later merged with S&P Global). While employees were allowed to work from home, Elisha insisted on working from the Highland Ranch satellite office almost 95% of the time. Coworkers noted that she rarely left the office, even for lunch, and often stayed late after everyone else had departed. When she was involved in a car accident, a coworker who drove her home learned that Leland was a stay-at-home father and that Elisha was the family’s sole provider.
On December 21, 2018, Aurora Police responded to a domestic violence complaint at an Extended Stay hotel on East Evans Avenue. Elisha, then 41, had called regarding her husband, Leland, who was staying at a different hotel. Authorities discovered the couple had two children—an infant daughter and seven-year-old Kaden. When asked about their whereabouts, Elisha claimed they were with Leland. During the interview, officers observed suspected heroin in the room, leading to a search warrant. The search yielded more narcotics and a business card for a public storage facility on East Evans Avenue, which Elisha had been renting since May 17, 2018.
Simultaneously, Denver and Aurora police located Leland at his hotel parking lot. He had an active domestic violence warrant with Elisha listed as the victim. A search of his vehicle revealed a half-ounce of crystal meth. When questioned about the children, Leland’s story shifted; he first claimed Kaden was at a daycare, then later suggested he was with Elisha. He was subsequently arrested.
Through a series of interviews and redacted police records, investigators pieced together a harrowing timeline. A witness told detectives that Leland had mentioned losing his son three weeks prior and that he “needed to get help.” Police eventually visited the daycare Elisha and Leland’s daughter attended; staff there revealed that on November 29, Leland had told them his daughter needed to be social with other children because “she had lost her brother.”
On December 23, 2018, detectives obtained a search warrant for the couple’s storage unit. Accompanied by K-9 teams trained in cadaver detection, investigators opened the unit. It appeared mundane at first—plastic totes and piles of clothing—but in the back, they found gallon-sized water bottles, bags of Quikrete concrete, and a rectangular object wrapped in layers of black trash bags and silver duct tape. Both canine units alerted to the object, signaling the presence of human remains.
A follow-up search on December 24 led to the discovery of a large plastic dog crate containing a block of cement. The crate was transported to the Denver Medical Examiner’s office, where officials identified the remains of an adolescent encased in the concrete. The body was severely decomposed.
Following the discovery, a witness came forward. She had shared a cell block with Elisha at the Arapahoe County Jail after Elisha was briefly released before the body was found. The witness alleged that Elisha admitted Kaden had died in the dog crate. According to the witness, Leland frequently forced the boy into the crate, and Elisha would do the same when she needed to shower. In late July, after being confined in the crate under blankets, the boy cried out that he was hot and thirsty; Elisha reportedly ignored his cries. The next morning, she found him dead. Leland later helped her purchase concrete, water, and trash bags to dispose of the body in the storage unit. Authorities, however, suspected Kaden was actually killed in May, around the same time Elisha pulled him from school.
In January 2019, DNA testing confirmed the remains were indeed Kaden McWilliams. Surveillance footage from the storage facility showed both Leland and Elisha accessing the unit multiple times between May and December 2018.
The autopsy report was devastating. Seven-year-old Kaden weighed only 27 pounds, showing signs of severe emaciation. He had suffered numerous injuries to his head, torso, and extremities, some of which were in various stages of healing, suggesting a pattern of long-term abuse. The coroner determined the manner of death was homicide, with child maltreatment as a significant contributing condition.
In March 2019, Elisha finally admitted to detectives that she was aware Leland was abusing Kaden and failing to feed him, yet she did nothing to intervene. She described finding Leland holding their son by the neck against a wall shortly before his death.
Leland Panky eventually accepted a plea deal, receiving 72 years in prison for child abuse resulting in death and tampering with a deceased human body. Elisha Panky was sentenced to 32 years in prison plus five years of mandatory parole.
In the aftermath, Kaden’s memory was honored by his community. A beautiful mural featuring a tree, a bumblebee, and a dinosaur was painted near Ellis Elementary, accompanied by a bright orange memorial bench. Kaden’s former classmate’s parent, Brooke Webb, became an advocate for legislative change, hoping to expand Safe Haven laws to include older children so that parents who are unable to care for them have a safe, legal alternative to abuse.
