In the early morning hours of a day before Valentine’s Day 2017, six-year-old Mi’Kenzie Bostic was found in a St. Louis, Missouri home with a gunshot wound to the head and died at the scene. Her mother, Ebony Jones, 27, and the mother’s boyfriend, Jeramee Ramey, 31, were reportedly asleep in the second-floor apartment when the shooting occurred. Investigators believed a nine-year-old sibling had found a gun and accidentally fired the shot that killed Mi’Kenzie; two other children in the home were ages three and four.

Jones and Ramey were charged with second-degree involuntary manslaughter and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. In April 2018 Jones pleaded guilty to three counts of child endangerment as part of a plea deal; a judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge and Jones was sentenced to probation and ordered to attend parenting classes. The case against Ramey never reached trial; he was later fatally shot in 2017 following an argument over a dice game.

Mi’Kenzie was a first-grader at Herzog Elementary School and was described by a family friend as a nice, sweet little girl who gave hugs. Does anyone have memories of Mi’Kenzie or information about the household that could shed light on how the children accessed the firearm?