CINCINNATI — A fundraiser has been organized to support the family of 7-year-old William Evans, who was found bound and dead in a closet in an Oakley apartment Aug. 6.
The GoFundMe account, launched by a close friend of the family on their behalf, is designed to "help the family create a memorial in William’s honor, giving family, friends, and loved ones the chance to come together, remember him, and celebrate the precious life he lived," the donation page states.
The fundraiser set a $24,000 goal and, as of Wednesday, had raised about 96% of that goal.
The family also hopes to establish a foundation in Evans' name that "carries forward the love, kindness and light William brought into the lives of those around them," the page states. "The foundation’s mission will be to support children facing circumstances similar to those William and his loved ones experienced, providing compassion, resources, and meaningful support during some of life’s most difficult moments."
Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco ruled Evans' cause of death as blunt force trauma to his head on Aug. 11. She said it was apparent when she arrived at the Oakley home where he was found dead that he had suffered a head injury.
Sammarco said that, for her, the case was too similar to the case of Marcus Fiesel, a case that rocked the Greater Cincinnati area and changed the fabric of foster care 20 years ago.
While Sammarco could not provide a lot of information about the case while the investigation is ongoing, she said Evans' mouth was not taped, and he had multiple other injuries. Specifically, she said one of his arms was fractured and he had multiple bruises on his body "that were too numerous to count, and of various ages."
She also said her office believes Evans was dead for at least a day before he was found.
Evans' mother, Kaitlin Evans, 38, and two other people, Kirby Rankin, 33, and Nessa Keaney, 23, face murder and child endangerment charges in connection with what one investigator called "one of the most disturbing examples of child abuse" he has witnessed in his decades-long law enforcement career.
WATCH: 911 call reveals how police found 7-year-old Oakley boy bound, dead in closet
During arraignment hearings on Aug. 8, investigators said William suffered months-long abuse, including water and burn torture, blunt force injuries and beatings while in the care of the three defendants. During Tuesday's press conference, Sammarco said her team had found a couple of "very small marks that might have been burns," but the pathologist has not completed testing on them.
During the hearing, it was said Rankin disclosed their involvement in the abuse and implicated the other two as active participants. A judge ordered a competency hearing for Rankin for early September.
The charges follow a conviction Rankin received months ago for assaulting a woman in the Fairfield Jungle Jim's parking lot in January.
In a statement over the weekend, William's grandparents and aunt said, "The pain of losing such a sweet, beautiful, innocent child is beyond description. We will love and miss him forever."
