MINERAL POINT, Wis. — The final pretrial hearing was held Friday for two Mineral Point women charged in the 2018 death of a 13-year-old girl who was in their care.
Alexis Barry and her mother, Laurie Barry, were caring for Selah Kaden when the girl died.
A forensic pathologist determined Kaden died from suffocation and a patterned beating with blunt force, and believed more than one person was involved in her death.
The Barrys told authorities Kaden would intentionally fall, bruise herself or fake fainting. They claimed Kaden had fallen backwards and hit her head very hard on the floor or a bookcase on the day she had died, but was responsive the last time they saw her.
However, an autopsy showed “acute and mixed blunt head trauma,” including contusions on her scalp and face, but not brain trauma. She also had pattern injuries to her upper chest and extensive limb trauma. First responders believed she had been dead for several hours before they were called.
Kaden’s parents, who live in North Carolina, had sent her to live in Mineral Point with the Barrys due to behavioral problems at home. The two families had been close when they lived in Madison.
The Barrys’ trial is expected to start next month. They both face one felony charge of first-degree reckless homicide as party to a crime.
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