Tonya Traufler says her daughter is a liar.
According to our news partners at WCPO, Traufler — whose daughter Rebekah Kinner was sentenced to 11 years in prison in connection to Rebekah’s 2-year-old daughter’s death — couldn’t believe what her daughter told a psychologist.
“A lot of lies,” she said to WCPO. “None of it’s true.”
A newly released psychological evaluation of Rebekah Kinner reveals, in detail, her account of what happened in the weeks and days leading up to the death 0f her 2-year-old daughter, Kinsley.
That story can be found here.
While Butler County law enforcement officials have alleged Rebekah's boyfriend, Bradley Young, beat Kinsley to death and that Kinner did nothing to stop it, she's denied that version of events. Instead, she insisted to the psychologist, Dr. Robert Kurzhals, that she thought Young was perhaps disciplining Kinsley a bit too harshly.
Young is charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and two counts of endangering children. He's pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys are trying to get his case dismissed.
Traufler has remained largely silent, but after Traufler saw the psychologist’s report, she told WCPO she couldn’t stay quiet anymore.
“I can’t believe, even at 24 years of age, my daughter would stand and lie to get my feelings, to get sympathy from society,” Traufler said to WCPO.
WCPO reports Rebekah told Kurzhals her mother was largely absent during her childhood, that her mother belittled her and told her she wished she’d had an abortion.
Traufler admitted to WCPO her relationship with Rebekah was distant over the years — as a child, Rebekah stayed with her grandmother — but she said she never told Rebekah she should have been aborted or burn in hell.
“I just gave up fighting, because I had five other children in the home to take care of that I didn’t have time to sit and argue with someone all the time,” Traufler said to WCPO.
Traufler said to WCPO she saw Kinsley once, just after she was born, but Rebekah cut her out of her life. She said she wouldn’t see her granddaughter again until the 2-year-old was unconscious and on life support at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where she would be pronounced dead Dec. 3.
When Rebekah was sentenced last week, Traufler said to WCPO she was there. Traufler told her daughter she loved her.
“I love my daughter — I always will, no matter what,” she said to WCPO. “But I just don’t know what to say to her anymore. I don’t know how to confront her and say ‘Why? Why would you use me to try to get sympathy?’”
Traufler said last week after Rebekah’s sentencing that she wishes more sympathy would have been shown toward Rebekah.
“No matter what the sentence is given, it’s not bringing back Kinsley at all,” Traufler told NewsCenter 7’s Mike Campbell. “It’s a loss we suffer. But it’s a second loss we suffer with Rebekah gone as well. It’s something we have to live with.”
Traufler admitted that “everybody’s hurting,” but that doesn’t change the fact that she will always love her daughter, she said last week.
“People need to forgive and begin to heal and mend and move on,” she said. “As long as they don’t, they’re going to stay where they are — full of anger.”
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