UNSPEAKABLE
Dad who ‘tortured son to death with mom’s help and encased body concrete’ jailed
THE dad who tortured and abused his seven-year-old son before his body was found encased inside concrete has been sentenced to 72 years in prison on Friday.
Leland Pankey, 40, had in January to charges related to the death of his son, Caden McWilliams, a second-grader who weighed only 27 pounds.
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Authorities couldn’t specify how exactly the boy died, but found his body buried in concrete inside of a storage unit in 2018.
Cops were investigating claims from Elisha Pankey, Leland’s wife, that he had abused her when they noticed Caden was missing, reported.
Six days later, they discovered the boy’s body.
An autopsy found Caden was severely emaciated and he had head, chest and limb injuries.
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Some of Caden’s injuries showed signs of healing — but ultimately authorities couldn’t determine how he died.
Elisha Pankey told investigators Leland severely abused the boy “by beating and starving him.”
She claimed that in July 2018, Leland made Caden sleep in a dog kennel "a few days" before he died at a hotel where they had been living.
Prosecutors said after the boy died, the couple wrapped his body in garbage bags, sealed it in duct tape, put his body in concrete and put the concrete in a dog carrier before hiding it inside a storage unit.
Both of those adults tortured that child.
Joe Morales, Denver’s chief deputy district attorney
It’s unclear why Caden’s last name is different from Elisha and Leland Pankey.
For the first five years of his life, Caden lived with his maternal grandmother, Martha McWilliams.
She told the judge her daughter Elisha and Leland cut McWilliams and the rest of their family out of their lives in 2016 because McWilliams stopped giving them money because she suspected Elisha was addicted to .
McWilliams said she would still check in on the family to make sure Caden and his new little sister were doing alright.
"The pain is a numbness," she said. "I live with the sadness of two children who felt abandoned by their Mimi."
Caden's family told the judge they all feel deeply guilty that they didn't know Caden was suffering.
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Elisha Pankey previously pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death under a plea deal that required her to cooperate with prosecutors.
She faces between 16 and 32 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced April 1.
Leland pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death and tampering with a deceased body and received the maximum sentence possible.
Prosecutors dropped a murder charge as part of a plea deal, partly because they couldn’t figure out how Caden died.
District Attorney Beth McCann said the case was one of the most horrific cases her office has ever handled.
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She said in a statement that Caden’s relatives are reminded of the boy when they see red-tailed hawks, which are common in Colorado, as a sign of the “elegance of Caden.”
The sentencing hearing on Friday included a slide show of pictures of Caden.
“Caden loved to tinker and figure out how things worked and his family believes he would likely have been an engineer if he was given the chance to reach adulthood,” McCann said.
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