GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Kent County court began hearing testimony this morning in the case of a mother who is accused of killing two of her young children and abusing another.
Irene Whitehead, 27, has been charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse in the deaths of two of her children: 2-month-old Leo, who died in 2021, and 2-year-old Ryleigh, who died last year. She is also accused of abusing another child, who is now in her father’s custody. She was in court Monday for a preliminary hearing during which the judge will decide whether there is enough probable cause for the case to continue.
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Bartlett played multiple clips of Whitehead’s interview with Kent County Sheriff’s detectives for the court in which she admitted to smothering three of her children, repeatedly saying “I wanted her to die” about her daughter, Ryleigh.
After hours of testimony, the court was shown two videos of Ryleigh that Whitehead filmed the day before and the day of her death that showed her struggling to breathe. In the second clip, from the day of her death, Ryleigh could be heard gasping for air while cartoon noises played in the background. Whitehead covered her face with her hands and could be heard crying as the videos played.
‘I killed her’: Mom charged with murdering 2-year-old daughter
The first to take the stand was Dr. David Start, who performed Ryleigh’s autopsy after the 2-year-old’s death in Cedar Springs in September 2025. Start testified that he ultimately determined her cause of death to be asphyxia by smothering…