Disturbing Details emerge from

Preliminary Hearing in Child’s Death

 

By Shane Gilreath

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(WARNING: This story contains graphic and troubling details)

A crowded McCreary County courtroom was somber on Thursday for the preliminary hearing of two suspects in the death of 14-year-old Austin Carpenter. With courthouse security on alert in lieu of community ire, the graphic, gut-wrenching testimony that emerged from Chief Deputy Dustin Ridner ultimately brought tears and a sense of dismay to many sitting in the courtroom gallery.  Deputy Ridner testified before District Judge Cathy Prewitt to determine the burden of evidence against Carpenter’s court appointed guardian, Billie Bolin, 37, and Bolin’s 45-year-old live-in boyfriend, Jeremy Ridner, who was identified by the suspects as having played a caregiver’s roll for Carpenter, often giving the 14-year-old showers and “cleaned him up.”

As previously reported, Chief Deputy Ridner testified that a 911 call from Jeremy Ridner initially alerted the McCreary County Sheriff’s Office to the Bolin home.  The call, which came at 7:15pm on February 23rd, reported that a young boy, later identified as Carpenter, was unresponsive.  Chief Deputy Ridner told SCN that first responders helped EMS transport the boy to the Wayne County Hospital in Monticello, Kentucky, some 26 miles away, but when Chief Deputy Ridner arrived, Carpenter had died.

Thursday’s hearing took place after Commonwealth Attorney Ronnie Bowling filed 1st Degree Criminal Abuse charges against the defendants. In such cases, the presiding judge can determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send the case before a grand jury and allows the defense team –made up of public defenders Dylan Goiski, representing a stone-faced Ridner, and Heather Estes, representing Bolin, who shook her head and whispered to the lawyer throughout Chief Deputy Ridner’s testimony – to challenge the state’s evidence. The defense kept Deputy Ridner on the stand for a prolonged period, delivering round after round of questions that appeared ineffective under Bowling’s multiple objections.

The deputy told the court that it was clear from observing Carpenter’s body that the boy had a head injury, was malnourished and exhibited a multitude of injuries all over his body, which included a visible forehead wound, a laceration near the right eye socket, burns across his neck, torso, and sizable pressure sores on his posterior, typically an indication that the child had been immobile for long periods.  The Wayne County, KY, doctor who treated Carpenter reportedly informed deputies that the boy’s protein levels were half the normal level, signaling that he had not been fed or fed well. The attending physician likewise confirmed that Carpenter’s body contained both chemical and cigarette burns in varying stages of healing, indicating infliction over a period of time, and blunt force trauma to the minor’s head.  The findings of the preliminary autopsy, performed by Dr. Patrick Greenwell from the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort, Kentucky, concurred with these findings, noting additional burn marks near the boy’s mouth and nose.

“He had more injuries on his face and neck than he had skin,” Commonwealth Attorney Ronnie Bowling told the court.  Upon Bowling’s insistence, Chief Deputy Ridner identified photographs of Carpenter’s injuries from the stand, but those photographs were not admitted into the public record.

Explanations offered by the accused during initial phases of the investigation proved futile.  Chief Deputy Ridner testified that Bolin attributed Carpenter’s injuries to responses of “I don’t know” to bee stings to ATV accidents to poison oak, for which she allegedly applied mixtures of Lysol and bleach. When confronted with photographs of the boy’s injuries, both suspects claimed the traumas were sustained in a four-wheeler accident.  Deputy Ridner’s testimony, however, indicated that the four-wheeler in question had not been moved, had left indentions in the ground beneath it, did not have an attached seat, which sat separately on the ground near the vehicle, had dry rotted tires, and did not appear to have been involved in an accident.

During questioning, Jeremy Ridner told investigators that Carpenter refused medical treatment. This statement sat in some contrast to evidence provided by acquaintances of the couple, who informed investigators that they had seen and/or the defendants had visited their home in the company of Carpenter in the days before the minor’s death.  Deputy Ridner reported that sources told police that they noticed right away that Carpenter wasn’t himself, appeared sick, could not stand on his own, and the teenager’s head was heavily bandaged.  Despite investigators finding no medical records to support the claim, Billie Bolin reportedly informed one such acquaintance that the couple had just left the hospital where the 14-year-old was treated.  According to testimony and sources close to the case, another allegedly told the couple, “that boy needs to go the hospital.  He looks like he’s dying.”  Bolin and Ridner did not heed that advice.  According to police, Carpenter last visited a doctor in March 2024.

The couple additionally asserted that Carpenter had behavioral issues, which contributed to a multitude of injuries, though SCN could not verify this claim.  According to testimony, family members also did not corroborate.

In efforts to exculpate Carpenter’s undernourishment, Bolin and Ridner told investigators that the boy ate often, though Bolin also claimed to believe the boy had worms.  Investigators located an unopened parasitic medication in Bolin’s home.   The preliminary autopsy, however, showed that Carpenter’s stomach was empty, despite the two suspects having purchased pizza at the Whitley City Little Caesars at 2:25pm, nearly five hours before the 911 call.  Investigators also report that there was food in the home, and that among the evidence collected are writings – confirmed by Bolin to be Carpenter’s – stating, “I will not steal anymore.  I will not break and enter” and “Please don’t ground me. I won’t steal food anymore.”

“For the evidence we have,” Bowling told SCN, “it appears starvation to be the leading factor in causing his death. All of it is relevant and contributed in some way, but we’ll defer to our medical experts for the inevitable call.”  For juxtaposition, according to data produced by the BBC, the human body can meet the majority of caloric requirements from stored fat, but total starvation is fatal in 8-12 weeks, regardless of initial body weight.

Other evidence collected from the scene includes notes, letters, bedding, clothes, and cleaner bottles.  Investigators also located a crystal-like substance, a brown substance, and several different pills.  When Bowling pressed Chief Deputy Ridner for his opinion on the substances, the deputy stated that, in his experience, the substances, which have been sent for testing, appeared to be “meth and heroine, or a dirty meth scraped from a pipe.”  Perhaps more damning, video shows Jeremy Ridner beside an active burn pile before his arrest.

“There is body cam video of Jeremy being at a fire,” Chief Deputy Ridner confirmed to SCN.  “And we did pull Austin’s clothes out of the fire.”

At the close of Thursday’s testimony, Judge Prewitt ruled that the state had met the burden of evidence to send the case to the grand jury.  “Bond will remain as is, $1 Million each,” Prewitt announced.

“I think things went as well as they could have,” Chief Deputy Ridner told SCN,  “and I’m glad we got it to grand jury.”

SCN reached out to Carpenter’s family for statement.  The family confirmed to SCN that they have been restricted from speaking on the case, though Carpenter’s grandfather, Marcus Saunders, told SCN, “I am satisfied with the swift prosecution of this case and the outcome so far and hope that they get the maximum, just as Austin did.”  Saunders has begun the steps to create a non-profit organization called “Abused and Neglected Children’s Advocates” in memory of his grandson.

“The condition of this poor child was beyond inexcusable,” Commonwealth Attorney Bowling told SCN.  “No one deserves to live in such a state, let alone a child that trusted the adults in his life to care for him. At the end of the day, the system failed Austin; we don’t intend to do the same. “

The grand jury is expected to return on April 28. 2025.  SCN will continue to report.