By John Estridge
WARNING: Some depictions of actual events are graphic in nature.
A jury trial has been set and a pre-trial hearing held on Tuesday, October 6, in Ripley County Circuit Court concerning a 16-year-old male who is accused of killing two siblings in 2017.
Nickalas Kedrowitz is accused of killing Desiree McCartney and Nathaniel Ritz.
According to an article on the Eagle website, Desiree was 23 months old when she was killed in May 2017, and Nathaniel was 11 months old when he was killed July 2017.
Also, according to the article, Kedrowitz was 13 at the time of the killings. In Indiana, youths as young as 10 can be tried as adults when charged with Murder, according to a GDS Law Group, LLC legal blog on its website.
In the Affidavit of Probable Cause filed by Indiana State Police Detectives Brent Miller and Peter Tressler, EMS was called to the first killing on May 1, 2017. It occurred on South Maple Street in Osgood. A child, Desiree, was nonresponsive. EMS took the child to Margaret Mary Community Hospital in Batesville and then the child was transferred to Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati.
After many interviews, police discovered Desiree was taking a bath given to her by Kedrowitz before she was found non-responsive. The mother, Christina McCartney, said she arrived home from work after stopping by the CVS and found Kedrowitz holding Desiree in a towel.
Christina found Desiree nonresponsive and began giving the child CPR. A 911 call was placed, the detectives found through their interrogations.
When Kedrowitz talked to the police, he told them he was in the seventh grade at Jac-Cen-Del Senior and Junior High School. He said he has to do chores around the house, and there is usually a list of chores he has to do that is on the kitchen table when he comes home from school.
He went through what a normal day was like for him.
Kedrowitz said he got up around 5 or 6 a.m. and rode with his mom to school. His siblings go to daycare, and he rides the bus home from school. Kedrowitz would wake up Stephen Ritz, the male figure in the home, who worked third shift. Ritz would then go and get Kedrowitz’s siblings from daycare. He said there was usually a list of chores for him to do on the kitchen table. Sometimes, Kerdowitz would heat up the supper. Sometimes, he had to fold laundry. Sometimes, he would help get the other kids ready to eat supper.
On the day in question, his mom took him to school. On the way to school, she dropped the other kids off at daycare.
Kedrowitz told police he put enough water in the tub to be up to Desiree’s chest when sitting and to her knees when standing. While he was giving Desiree her bath, Desiree puked twice in the tub. He said he went out to get some wipes. While getting the wipes, he heard his mom’s car pull up to the house. When he went back to the bathroom – he said he had been gone about five minutes — Desiree was floating on her stomach in the tub. He pulled her out, and she was nonresponsive. He then told his mom Desiree was nonresponsive. His mom began performing CPR, and Ritz called 911.
Police noted Desiree died while in the care of Kedrowitz.
An autopsy was performed by Dr. Karen Looman. In her initial report, she concluded the cause and manner of death was undetermined. She said there was a prolonged period of anoxia to the brain. Anoxia means the absence of oxygen.
At 11:12 p.m., on July 20, 2017, Ripley County Communications received a 911 call from the same address on South Maple Street in Osgood. Christina McCartney made the call.
This time it was Nathaniel Ritz. EMS transported him to Margaret Mary Hospital, and he was declared dead at 12:12 a.m.
Dr. Bryan Stegman told the detectives Nathaniel’s heart had stopped 20-30 minutes before EMS arrived at the home. The doctor described the condition as asystole, which, in laymen’s terms, means flat line or no activity in the heart.
Detectives talked again with Christina McCartney, Stephen Ritz and Kedrowitz.
McCartney said it was a somewhat normal evening in the house. They ate supper together and then watched TV together. Around 11 p.m., she asked Kedrowitz to take Nathaniel to their bedroom. Apparently, Kedrowitz and Nathaniel shared a bedroom.
Stephen Ritz was supposed to be leaving for work around that time. Christina went into her bedroom to change and get ready for bed. She said it took only a few minutes. While she was changing, Kedrowitz said something like “something’s not right with Nathaniel. He is not acting right.” Christina walked from her bedroom to the boys’ bedroom. She picked Nathaniel up and saw a blue-line indicator with his diapers so she took the child her bedroom to change the diapers. Something did not seem right when she laid the baby down so she called for Ritz. He came into the bedroom. They called 911 and performed CPR.
Ritz said when he arrived home, he helped cook supper and helped do the baths. They rocked the babies, and Christina told Nickalas to put Nathaniel to bed. Stephen was getting ready to leave when Christina went to check on Nickalas. That is when Nickalas said “he ain’t moving.”
Nickalas said he and Christina went into the boys’ bedroom and pulled the cover off Nathaniel, and they knew something was wrong. They started CPR and called 911.
Kedrowitz said he helped get supper ready and helped feed the kids. He then cleaned up after supper and cleaned up the kids after supper. He also said he did some laundry. Stephen left for awhile after supper. Christina was in her bedroom with her laptop “because she had to do stuff for her work or she was going to get fired.” Kedrowitz said he put the two smaller children in their rocker swings, and they all watched SpongeBob. He tried to put a female child into bed but she woke up. He then put her back into her rocker swing. He then put Nathaniel to bed, and Kedrowitz started to do some laundry. Everyone else was asleep.
Kedrowitz said he realized Nathaniel was not moving so he went over and found Nathaniel cold and bright white. He then picked Nathaniel up and took him to his mother’s bedroom. He said Ritz and McCartney started doing CPR, and Kedrowitz watched all that from another room.
Again, the detectives determined a child who ended up dead had been in Kedrowitz’s care when the child died.
Dr. Dorothy Dean of the Hamilton County Ohio Coroner’s Office performed the autopsy. She was unable to determine a cause of death. She said the autopsy did not reveal an acute injury, congenital anomalies, toxicology agent or any infectious etiology. Dr. Dean “indicated that further investigative correlative information was recommended.”
Christina McCartney contacted the detectives on September 5, 2017, telling them Kedrowitz had mutilated some kittens. They contacted McCartney’s aunt and uncle at their residence on September 11, 2017. Kedrowitz had stayed with McCartney’s aunt and uncle. At times, when McCartney’s work schedule was full, Kedrowitz would stay with the couple for three or four days.
The female said Kedrowitz was failing all of his classes at Madison Junior High School and had been involved in some fights there.
She told the detectives Kedrowitz had issues with his temper and was very self-centered. She said when his temper got away with him, Kedrowitz reminded her of the Hulk. She said she had talked with Kedrowitz about her health issues. She has diabetes and a prosthetic leg. Kedrowitz told her “that with all of her health problems, she just needed to die.” She said Kedrowitz had made some of the same statements about an old dog the couple owned. She said Kedrowitz had trouble telling the truth and also suffered from depression. He had been on medications for depression.
She also had to tell Kedrowitz he was hugging her too hard and when he grabbed her arms, he left bruises.
On September 4, 2017, Kedrowitz came outside and told the male at the house that a kitten was in the basement. The kittens were supposed to stay outside the house, and the male told Kedrowitz to go get the kitten. Kedrowitz said there was something wrong with the kitten.
A little later on, the female found Kedrowitz sitting on the porch with the kitten, and Kedrowitz was crying. The female said the kitten had blood all over it and its insides were hanging out. It also had a puncture-like wound to its head. Kedrowitz told the female he had taken the kitten to the basement and when the kitten had scratched him, he got mad and squeezed the kitten really hard. The male decided to take the kitten somewhere and destroy it as it was suffering. Kedrowitz asked the male if he could accompany the male so he could see the kitten’s brains splatter everywhere.
The female found other kittens with puncture wounds to their sides and heads. She said Kedrowitz was carrying around some sticks in his pocket, and she was pretty sure that was what caused the puncture wounds.
The detectives had Dr. Linda McIntire of Shelbyville meet with McCartney, Ritz and Kedrowitz and conduct psychological evaluations. After the evaluations, McIntire told the detectives she was concerned about Kedrowitz. He had discussed “setting his siblings free and/or freeing them from hell.” She said Kedrowitz made several references to Satan and witchcraft themes. She said it was possible Kedrowitz had been involved in the deaths of his siblings. When McIntire asked Kedrowitz if he caused their deaths, he did not respond or deny the accusation.
After that, the detectives contacted another uncle where Kedrowitz had stayed since the second death. They spoke with both the uncle and Kedrowitz but did so separately. It was December 13, 2017. When the detectives spoke with Kedrowitz, he told them he had been kicked out of school. Kedrowitz said he was tired of being teased and bullied. He then told the detectives he had started reading the Bible. He retrieved his Bible and one of the detectives noted Kedrowitz had been reading the story of Lazarus. They talked to him about the Bible story, and Kedrowitz seemed very engaged by the conversation.
When the detectives started asking Kedrowitz about his dead siblings, Kedrowitz said he had a conversation with God about them and promised God he would not tell anyone about them. Tressler asked if Kedrowitz would share some of his conversation with God about his siblings.
Kedrowitz told the detectives about some dreams he had after they died. Then he talked about saving them from hell and the chains of fire. Kedrowitz said he had help from an angel in freeing them. Miller asked him to stick with what happened on earth concerning his siblings.
They first asked him about Desiree and what happened in the bathroom. Kedrowitz began to cry. He appeared to become very upset. At first, he said he did not remember. Kedrowitz was then asked about when Nathaniel died. Kedrowitz started crying again. He told the detectives again that everyone was asleep at the time. His mom was in her bedroom; and Ritz was asleep on a couch. Nathaniel was asleep on the bottom bunk bed. Kedrowitz said he put a blanket on Nathaniel’s head and not on Nathaniel’s body. Nathaniel did not react to that because he was asleep. Then, Kedrowitz said he told his mother he thought Nathaniel was almost gone.
Tressler then went back to Desiree.
Tressler reminded Kedrowitz that Kedrowitz was helping Desiree in the bath, and Kedrowitz answered in the affirmative. Tressler asked Kedrowitz if he helped Desiree out of the tub and was drying her off with a towel. Again, Kedrowitz said yes. Tressler asked what then happened to Desiree. Kedrowitz said he put the towel over her head when she was outside the tub on the floor.
Kedrowitz told the detectives he had to do that “to set her free to heaven.” Kedrowitz kept crying and repeating he had to do it.
Then, Kedrowitz told the detectives he did not want to kill his siblings, but he had to do it “to free them from this hell.”
Kedrowitz asked the detectives if he was going to jail, and they said he wasn’t going to jail right now. Both detectives asked Kedrowitz what hell he was talking about saving them from. Kedrowitz replied he did not want them to live in the hell he lived in. Again, they asked him to explain what his hell was. Kedrowitz answered with one word: “chores.”
Kedrowitz asked the detectives if they had seen the chores list he had to complete every day while living with his mother and Ritz. Miller told Kedrowitz he had seen the chore list and “was aware Nickalas was tasked with many duties during that time.”
When asked why Kedrowitz had not told anyone else about this, Kedrowitz said no one had asked him.
Tressler asked Kedrowitz how Tressler would know if Kedrowitz was telling him the truth about everything. Kedrowitz replied he had told the truth because he had looked the detectives in the eyes when he told them.
Tressler then stated other admissions Kedrowitz had made to family members.
On Dec. 14, 2017, Kedrowitz’s great aunt picked Kedrowitz up from his tutor. Kedrowitz said he had something he wanted to tell her. According to the great aunt, Kedrowitz told her he had put a towel over Desiree’s head. The great aunt asked Kedrowitz how he knew Desiree was dead. He replied to her he would take the towel off to look at her and then put it back on until her lips were blue, then he knew she was dead. The great aunt asked why he did that, and Kedrowitz said, according to the report written by the ISP detectives, that he was protecting her from Ritz. Kedrowitz told the great aunt he did not want Desiree to go through the hell he had been going through.
He then told the great aunt he killed his brother by putting a heavy blanket over Nathaniel’s head and pressing it down. Kedrowitz also said he killed Nathaniel to protect him from Ritz. After Nathaniel died, he said Ritz threw Kedrowitz hard down on the floor.
Miller then spoke with a grandmother to Kedrowitz. She said she had been helping take care of Kedrowitz. On Dec. 13, 2017, Kedrowitz was upset and crying. He said he wanted to talk, and he told his grandmother he put a heavy towel on Desiree, and he put a heavy blanket on Nathaniel. He told her he didn’t want his siblings to be treated the way he had been treated.
The uncle Kedrowitz had lived with after Nathaniel died said Kedrowitz also told him Kedrowitz had killed his two siblings. He told the uncle how he had killed them. He said the day before one of the siblings was killed Ritz bloodied Kedrowitz’s nose.
A clinical director for the Resource Treatment Facility at Indianapolis told the detectives Kedrowitz had confessed to breaking one of the 10 Commandments. And the Commandment he broke was Thou shall not kill.
He said he had killed his brother and sister, and Kedrowitz asked the staff member not to tell anyone.
With the new information, both of the doctors changed the autopsy by ruling the cause of death as homicide.
Kedrowitz was charged with two counts of Murder. Attorneys Mark Jones and Lynnette Fledderman were appointed by the court to defend Kedrowitz.
A jury trial is scheduled for 9 a.m., Friday, February 12, 2021, in Ripley Circuit Court before Circuit Court Judge Ryan King. If convicted of Murder, Kedrowitz could receive a sentence between 45-65 years in prison.