A murdered two year-old girl has been pictured for the first time after a US Army staff sergeant was charged with beating her to death at his wife’s illegal daycare.
Alizaundra Kundert, known as Ali, was fatally-beaten on November 6 2019 at a house on Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
She succumbed to her injuries at St Louis Children’s Hospital nine days later.
Sgt. Kevin Long, 40, is accused of killing the child in 2019 while he and his wife, whose name has not yet been confirmed, were caring for her at a daycare they ran out of their home on Fort Leonard Wood.
In addition to first-degree murder, Long was also charged with lying to federal authorities during a murder investigation by claiming he was unaware of Army regulations against running a daycare on the base.
The federal indictment was unsealed and made public on Friday after Long’s arrest on June 29 and subsequent court appearance.
He remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on July 6, according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri.
The indictment alleges Long killed the girl – identified in court documents only as ‘Jane Doe’ – on November 6, 2019, by delivering ‘blunt force injuries’.
It also states that the abuse was ‘part of a pattern and practice of assault’ against the girl.
According to a Military Times report, the woman who was babysitting Ali left the house to take her own daughter to school, leaving her soldier husband – Kevin Long – to watch the toddler.
Just before 9am, Long called 911 to report that the child had fallen down eight or nine stairs after he’d put her down for a nap.
‘She hit her head hard. She’s limp and acting very funny,’ he told the dispatcher, adding that she had a knot on her head where it had been hit.
On the 911 call, Long can then be heard calling Jonathan Kundert – the child’s father – telling him he needs to book it to the babysitter’s house.
Jonathan’s social media profiles describe him as being in the Army, but his job and rank are unclear.
According to the autopsy neuropathy report, the nature of the injuries of the neck and upper thoracic spinal cord of the child was ‘not plausibly caused by a fall of this small child down a short flight of 4 stairs, as was apparently alleged to the EMS personnel.’
‘More likely there was a forced severe hyperextension of the neck, probably accompanying the blow or blows causing the extensive bruising,’ read the report.
To make matters worse for the grieving parents, the Missouri Department of Social services’ Children’s Division successfully petitioned the judge to remove Jonathan and wife Raynischa’s other three children from their home.
The Kunderts said that the petition accused ‘the natural mother and the natural father’ of being the ‘alleged perpetrators’ in Ali’s death.
The case is being prosecuted in a federal court, and under federal law, any murder committed under the umbrella of child abuse is considered murder in the first degree.
Long is being represented by Assistant Federal Public Defender Brian D. Risley and could face the death penalty or life imprisonment if found guilty of the murder charge.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Ami Harshad Miller and Shannon Kempf. It was investigated by the Criminal Investigation Division of the US Army.
