Childs sentenced for concealing body

A Shawano woman was sentenced Aug. 22 to 2½ years in prison in connection with a car fire set on the Menominee Reservation two years ago that attempted to conceal the body of a drug overdose victim.

Kayla M. Childs, 34, pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this summer to concealing the body of Stephanie Greenspoon, of Green Bay, who died from a heroin overdose.

Childs and three others were charged after a charred car containing Greenspoon’s remains was found by loggers on the reservation in August 2020.

Acceding to the criminal complaint filed in May 2021, the car was registered to Greenspoon’s boyfriend who confirmed that Greenspoon had been driving it in early August 2020, about the time she had disappeared.

Using phone and Facebook records, investigators learned that Greenspoon was in the vicinity of Timothy Snider Jr.’s Green Bay residence, and suspected Snider of selling Greenspoon the heroin on which she fatally overdosed.

Snider then contacted Emmerson “Kelo” Reed, who contacted Keith D. Wilbur Jr. and arranged to get rid of Greenspoon’s corpse and the car she drove, according to the complaint. Reed and Snider allegedly drove the vehicle to a remote area of the reservation where they were met by Wilber and Childs. Reed and Wilber set the vehicle on fire which consumed and Greenspoon’s body.

DNA from Greenspoon’s relatives matched that of DNA taken from Greenspoon’s remains.

At the time, Snider had been recently released on a Brown County charge and was wearing a GPS tracking device. Authorities obtained Snider’s GPS data, which indicated he had traveled to S.E. Bass Lake Road in Keshena on Aug. 4, 2020. Surveillance cameras along the route matched Snider’s GPS data.

After the fire was set, Reed told authorities that Wilber and Childs left the area in Wilber’s truck. Reed also said that he obtained heroin and cash from Snider.

After her guilty plea, Childs faced up to 20 years in prison. She was Wilber’s girlfriend and drove one of the cars around the reservation on the day of the car fire.

Childs’ attorney, Lee Schuchart, wrote the court that Childs did not participate in the arson or drug distribution, just driving a vehicle to the site of the fire.

At the time, she was using one gram of methamphetamine and one-half gram of heroin daily. She remembers little about the crime which she said happened during a “toxic time of her life.”

Snider pleaded guilty to a drug distribution charge and is to be sentenced in November.

Reed pleaded guilty to a concealment charge and was sentenced earlier this year to 10 years in prison/

Wilber committed suicide in jail while his case was pending in court.