LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's been nearly one year since a 4-year-old Serenity McKinney's body was found in a wooded area near southern Jefferson County. This weekend, her loved ones plan to place a cross in the area where detectives made the discovery as a way to honor the child's memory.
"I feel like we need to have something," said Melody Roller, Serenity's paternal grandmother. "There's already a little cross there — and it's beautiful — but I want something more."
Serenity was reported missing to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office by her maternal grandfather in February 2022. Family members said they hadn't seen the child in more than a year.
4-year-old Serenity McKinney was first reported missing in early February of 2022. A few weeks later, detectives say her body was discovered in a wooded area.
"It ended my life," Roller said. "My life came to a stop that day."
A search quickly began to find Serenity, bringing Roller — who lived in Florida at the time — back to Kentucky to help look for her granddaughter. Roller said until late 2020, she used to see Serenity about every three months.
"In my mind and my thoughts, I was going to move back to Kentucky and I was going to find her," she said. "We were going to find her. There were no ifs, ands or buts around it. She was alive. We were going to find her. That was that. End of story."
But, instead, about two weeks after the search began, it ended.
In mid-February, Kentucky State Police released a statement saying in part that "detectives located the body of the 4-year-old in a wooded area near the 1300 block of Skyview Rd in West Point near the Jefferson-Bullitt Co. line."
Serenity's mother, Catherine McKinney, and her mother's boyfriend, Dakota Hill, were both charged with murder and abuse of a corpse. They remain in the Bullitt County Jail. A trial is scheduled to begin in June 2023. An attorney for Catherine McKinney hasn't responded to a request for comment.
"I would like for it to go to trial. I would," Roller said. "I would like for 12 people to determine."
Roller said in the year that has passed, time has not healed. Instead, she has a scrapbook filled with pictures of her granddaughter that she holds onto. She said she feels robbed of the chance to make more memories with her first and only grandchild.
"I miss coloring with her," she said. "I miss saying our ABCs, singing them."
In October 2022, a medical examiner's report listed Serenity's manner of death as a homicide, but the cause as "undetermined." The report said her body was in a suitcase with a sand-like substance. It also said she had a fracture to her right radius and right femur. For several months after Serenity's body was found, officials and family members waited on DNA results to positively confirm the identity.
Roller said she wants justice for Serenity but isn't quite sure what that looks like.
"As far as an actual definition for justice, I don't think I'll ever have it," she said. "I don't think there's a definition great enough. I think the only person that can answer that is God."
Serenity McKinney's paternal grandmother, Melody Roller, looks through a scrapbook filled with pictures of her granddaughter. (Feb. 15, 2023)
Roller said she's grateful for the support of the various local communities that helped post missing persons flyers and joined her family for vigils. But she said the pain of losing her granddaughter has been immense.
"I'm just now learning how to walk again, basically," she said. "That was a pain that will never go away. I wish it would, but it doesn't."
Roller said community members are welcome to join her Saturday, Feb. 18, as a cross is placed in the area where Serenity's body was found. Roller said the cross placement will take place at 1 p.m. in the 1300 block of Skyview Road.
"It'll be one year ... of her death, from the coroner's date of death," she said. "One year to the day."
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