Mother of 5-year-old who fell from Kansas City high-rise charged with child endangerment
The mother of a 5-year-old boy who was found dead in the alleyway behind his downtown Kansas City high-rise apartment after he fell from a 17th-floor window is facing a criminal charge of felony child endangerment.
Corrinne O’Connor, 27, of Kansas City, is accused of endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death, a Class A felony that carries a maximum term of life in prison under Missouri law.
Available information from court records Thursday did not identify a victim in the case. But the incident date on the charge is the day her son Grayson O’Connor died.
Records related to the case were entered on Casenet, the statewide online document center for court information, and publicly viewable for a brief period Thursday afternoon. Public access to records and all case information went offline shortly after a Star reporter reached out to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office seeking further information.
A spokesman for the office said further information related to the case, including the criminal complaint and a probable cause narrative outlining the police investigation, would not be available Thursday.
A docket entry on the case showed a prosecutor had requested the case file be sealed, which appeared to have been granted by a Jackson County judge.
A warrant for O’Connor’s arrest prepared Thursday calls for her to be held on a $100,000 cash bond. She did not appear to be in law enforcement custody Thursday night.
The criminal charge comes more than two weeks after Kansas City police began investigating the case as a suspicious death.
On Nov. 27, shortly before noon, Grayson was found dead by a passerby in the alley of the Grand Boulevard Lofts near 10th Street and Grand Boulevard.
At the scene, officers noticed an open window on the 17th floor.
Detectives and officers went upstairs, joined by a property manager, and knocked on the door. Inside was the voice of a woman who called out for help, a Kansas City detective wrote in an earlier affidavit filed in support of obtaining a search warrant for the apartment.
On the floor, underneath the window, was O’Connor, according to the court document. When asked where her son was, she uttered: “Out the window.”
Police have said Grayson’s mother was taken to a hospital the day her son died. She has been identified as the sole subject of interest in the suspicious death investigation.
Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for KCPD, said in an email Thursday that the medical examiner has not made a final determination in the cause of death. She said the case continued to be investigated by KCPD as a suspicious death.
The death of Grayson has saddened and angered several residents of the Grand Boulevard Lofts, including some neighbors who said they had long feared the boy was abused and neglected. Neighbors have also said police and the Missouri Department of Social Services were called several times.
One of the neighbors, Kelsey Grzib, 35, told The Star last week that Grayson was found at a bus stop months before he died with bruises on his head and foot. He had been abandoned there by his mother, Grzib said, and she took him under her care for several days.
Ultimately Grayson was returned to his mother by a social worker, Grzib said, despite what Grzib described as clear signs of child abuse and neglect.
The state agency has not answered The Star’s questions about whether Grayson ever received state care. A spokeswoman has said the earliest any records related to the case could become available is April 10.
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 8:16 PM.
