‘They are responsible’: KS senator blames DCF in fentanyl death of Wichita toddler

A Wichita woman failed two drug tests while pregnant, but the Kansas Department for Children and Families did not intervene until the child was born with drugs in his system, according to agency documents.

Kaiden McCullough “required morphine to treat his withdrawals” after he was born on Oct. 17, 2022, the DCF documents say.

Just over a year later, he was dead.

He died of fentanyl poisoning on Oct. 31, 2023, during an unscheduled, unsupervised visit with his mother, Wilma Faye Presley. At the time, he had been placed with his maternal aunt.

Kaiden became unconscious in Walmart while his mother shopped for candy with his father, Brijin M. McCullough. Presley also had her 2-year-old daughter with them. McCullough left before police arrived. He had been doing drug deals during the trick-or-treating outing, court records say.

Both parents were sentenced to prison in Kaiden’s death in September.

Presley had 18 complaints about neglect or abuse of her children before Kaiden was born. She was able to dodge most if not all of those investigations by DCF and law enforcement by either not answering calls or the door, or by simply saying the allegations were untrue, DCF documents show.

She had already had a child born with drugs in their system, but that child was able to go home with her, the documents show.

Kaiden and his siblings were removed by DCF after he was born with drugs in his system, records show. At the time, Presley also had a ninth-grader, eighth-grader, second-grader and a toddler.

DCF released documents after multiple Kansas Open Records Act requests from The Eagle. Some of the documents were heavily redacted.

Still, they show DCF’s failure to protect Presley’s children despite numerous complaints and warning signs over the years, according to state Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, who sits on the child welfare system oversight committee.

She said DCF is at fault for what happened.

“They are responsible to make sure that a tragedy like this does not happen, that someone that is unable to care for a child should not be caring for the child,” Baumgardner said.

Taking drugs while pregnant is not illegal in Kansas, according to media organization ProPublica.

DCF declined to comment outside of the records.

“DCF provided you with all that could be legally released,” DCF spokesperson Erin La Row told The Eagle. “DCF cannot provide additional case details beyond what was provided via your Kansas Open Records Act request.”

DCF didn’t provide any documents showing Presley passed any drug tests, which were part of the requirements for her to get her children back, but still she was given more access to her child.

She had “just moved to unsupervised visits on the weekend,” a DCF document after Kaiden’s death says, and was scheduled to get custody of the boy within days of his death. Kaiden died on a Tuesday.

The documents provided by DCF don’t show a mother who should have been allowed unsupervised visits, and especially not one who should be getting the child back permanently, Baumgardner said.

“In this case, it was an … unscheduled, unsupervised, that should have never happened,” she said.

Visitations are decided through a court order. The records that would indicate if a violation occurred are not publicly available.

Baumgardner, who has been critical of DCF’s handling of cases and transparency, said the agency shouldn’t have allowed the first child born with drugs in their system to go home with Presley and should have intervened to stop Kaiden from being born with drugs in his system. Baumgardner also had concerns that nothing appeared to have been done on the 18 complaints of neglect or abuse that happened before the baby was born.

Presley has a long history of crimes, with convictions dating back to around the mid-2000s. She has roughly 25 convictions. Before the more serious crimes related to the death of Kaiden and her and Brijin McCullough arranging drug transactions on a recorded jail line after the boy’s death, all of her convictions were for minor crimes, including forgery and theft. Several were traffic-related, including seven convictions for driving with a suspended license. She was on probation for a 2018 traffic-related case, which involved driving with a suspended license and no license plate or insurance, when one of Kaiden’s older siblings was born with drugs in their system. That probation was extended through Kaiden’s death after she failed to meet several requirements of the probation, including a mandate to attend drug and alcohol treatment.

Children born with drugs in their system

Presley had a child born in late 2020 — about 20 months before Kaiden — with methadone and amphetamines in their system.

The child “was jittery and being held at the hospital due to concerns of withdrawal,” the document reads.

“Mother initially accepted a referral to Healthy Babies and [redacted name] was released into Mother’s care,” a document says. “Healthy Babies attempted to made (sic) contact Mother several times, but was unsuccessful. Mother did not cooperate further with the investigation. Several health and welfare checks were done on the children and law enforcement was unable to make contact with the family.”

Healthy Babies is a free educational program offered through Sedgwick County.

Presley said she had one prenatal appointment when she was three months pregnant with Kaiden, the documents say.

While in her third trimester, she tested positive for methadone and amphetamines on Aug. 11, 2022, and again on Sept. 26, 2022. It’s not clear why she was tested in August. She went to the doctor in September because of complications related to the pregnancy, the documents say.

“Patient ended up leaving AMA that time,” the document says. (AMA presumably means against medical advice in this context.)

She tested positive again for those drugs when she went to the hospital to give birth to Kaiden on Oct. 17, 2022. A DCF document that day said a case manager was “concerned for recurrence of amphetamines just like the last child.”

Kaiden was born with methadone and amphetamines in his system, DCF records show.

Presley told officials the methadone was prescribed by a clinic “due to overusing pain medication,” but could never provide the name of the clinic or prescription, documents show.

Methadone and amphetamines stay in your blood for several days, according to The Recovery Village, a drug and alcohol rehab center with locations around the country.

Presley would not cooperate with DCF, the documents say. Under a section labeled Past Concerns, it says “additional children being substance affected at birth and mother not cooperating with DCF.”

The children were all removed from the home after Kaiden was born addicted to drugs, the document says. There had been years of complaints about child abuse or neglect before that.

Previous complaints

Presley had 18 complaints made to DCF of child abuse or neglect before Kaiden was born. The complaints date from February 2014 to March 2022.

Several of the complaints were about the children missing school.

There also were complaints about emotional abuse, medical neglect and leaving the children unattended.

A Jan. 26, 2017, complaint says a child was falling asleep in class and while walking down the hallway. The child went to the school nurse, who called Presley, which made the girl upset because “Mother told her not to let the school” call her anymore, according to a court document, called a child in need of care petition, that DCF released.

DCF was not able to reach Presley about that complaint.

“Mother was unable to be contacted regarding the allegation,” the court document says. “It was determined that there was not enough evidence to support the allegations. DCF closed the case.”

Another case, from Jan. 22, 2019, about truancies where the “children report they do not have beds” and having to feed themselves, reached the same conclusion after Presley was unwilling to work with the school, the documents say.

It says services through a mental health organization had been set up for the children “due to the Mother being ill with cancer.” It’s unclear whether that is true.

An Oct. 4, 2019, report said officers and staff have had to take the children home from school. It says the children stayed outside for “several hours” after being locked out of the house. Presley said it happened just once. The case was closed because there was not “enough evidence to support the allegations,” the court document says.

DCF also closed a case for a lack of evidence on a complaint three days after that. The report was about a child “alleging emotional abuse” by their mother. The child was “fearful of being at Mother’s home,” the document says. The child said she ran away a couple weeks before that because “she did not want to be at Mother’s home.”

The only case where it’s noted DCF took any action was after children were left in an unattended vehicle, with the keys in the ignition but not running, for at least 20 minutes on March 20, 2017, the document says.

Police were called in that case. Another child was home alone playing video games while that happened.

“Mother was affirmed for lack of supervision,” the document says. “She refused services.”

DCF’s most diligent investigation, documents appear to show, was after Kaiden was born with drugs in his system and the children removed from Presley’s custody.

Plan for reintegration

Kaiden had been in five placements, with the last happening on April 12, 2023, with his maternal aunt.

Kaiden siblings were with the aunt, too. The plan was for Presley to get her children back.

Part of the requirements for that to happen were passing drug tests. DCF did not provide any documents showing she passed any drug tests. One document, signed Aug. 18, 2023, says that “Mother stated since the HF was positive” she called the Substance Abuse Center of Kansas to get a referral to take part in outpatient treatment.

“Mother stated she used last 6 months ago,” the document says.

After Kaiden’s death, someone “provided pics of drugs in moms (sic) home,” DCF documents say.

Brijin McCullough, the father, was “not to have unsupervised contact” with the boy, the documents say.

Presley also had been arrested in February 2023 on a charge of driving without a license and possession of drug paraphernalia in a case where police found “marijuana shake in plain view,” according to a police report and municipal court records. She was arrested on contempt of court in the case on Oct. 19, 2023, less than a couple weeks before Kaiden died in her care.

Kaiden was “scheduled to be returned to his mother on 10/31 per DCF after she had passed numerous drug tests,” a DCF document says. Multiple other DCF documents say the visit that day was unscheduled.

Oct. 31, 2023 was the day Kaiden died.

Presley told a police detective that “she was working to get custody of her children back and was supposed to get custody back the next day, November 1, 2023,” according to her arrest affidavit.

Presley gave birth to another child in 2024; DCF filed a case against Presley in January to collect child support, court records show.

This story was originally published January 4, 2025 at 4:37 AM.