Slain Long Island Toddler’s Mother Continues Fight For Justice

PORT WASHINGTON, NY — Kyra Franchetti loved visiting local parks — what two-year-old doesn’t?

The bubbly towhead demanded to go fast on swings and had a ball flying down slides. She spent summer days dancing in the sprinkler at Blumenfeld Park in Port Washington.

Her mother, Jacqueline Franchetti, vividly remembers one hot day when another family was walking towards them, and the father looked at his children and pointed at Kyra, who was laughing and splashing in the water spouting out of a sprinkler, and commented that if they had half as much fun as she was having, “it will be a great day.”

That was about a week and a half before she was murdered five years ago.

Kyra was shot twice in her back as she slept by her father, 58-year-old Roy Eugene Rumsey, during a court-approved, unsupervised visit in Fairfax, VA, on July 27, 2016, police said. Rumsey then started a fire and took his own life, according to police.

Franchetti, who was embroiled in a custody battle with Rumsey, had complained to a judge that he was unstable and was yelled at with the words: “grow up,” she said, explaining that in May, weeks before Kyra’s death, she was told, “it was not a life or death situation” that she was describing.

It seemed to be par for the course, as a forensic evaluator assigned to her case had determined in November 2015 that a child’s father “should play a significant role” in their life, she said.

“He did play a significant role in her life; he murdered her,” Franchetti said.

Before that Franchetti had warned that Rumsey had been abusive to her and aired her concerns, but to no avail. She even chronicled changes she had seen in her daughter like that she was withdrawn for several days after returning from a visit with her father, and even told her once, in a very grown-up way, that no crying was allowed, Franchetti recalled.

“I was always scared for Kyra,” she said.

Working through her grief after her daughter’s death, she founded Kyra’s Champions to raise awareness about children involved in custody battles who she believes could be better protected by the family court system.

“I knew I had to do something, and it was when I started researching everything and realizing how frequently, this happens and how often this happens,” she said. “And that became a huge, huge awakening for me that this was not an isolated incident. This was not a one-off, okay. This is happening far too often.“

“Unless legislative changes are made, children are at risk,” she added.

Recently, she has been working furiously to highlight three bills in Albany that were inspired by Kyra’s story and has planned a rally — Kyra’s Rally for Change —set for Tuesday in Port Washington to draw attention to the legislation.

“Tomorrow is actually the five-year anniversary of what I call her Angel Day,” Franchetti said.

The first bill, which is titled “Kyra’s Law” and sponsored by Assemb. Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens), aims to make child safety the top priority in divorce/custody cases by mandating training for judges in child abuse and family violence before overseeing cases, and addresses other critical shortcomings in child custody cases “that result in children being abused at epidemic rates,” Franchetti said.

The bill has generated bipartisan support across the political divide in Nassau and Suffolk Counties from assemblymembers including Charles Lavine, chair of the judiciary committee, Gina Sillitti, David McDonough, Keith Brown, Fred Thiele, and Michael Durso, Franchetti said.

The second pair of bills that have been sponsored in the senate and assembly reforms supervised visits by establishing parameters. The third pair of bills mandate child abuse training for forensic evaluators who examine custody cases.

The rally will also emphasize Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Blue Ribbon Commission, which was formed in response to Franchetti’s advocacy to explore the role of forensic evaluators in child custody cases. Franchetti now serves on the commission, which was formed in June.

What happened to Kyra also “moved” members of the state’s Congressional delegation, Franchetti said, adding that in fall 2018, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to make child safety the top priority in child custody cases. It passed unanimously.
Kyra’s story had a “huge ripple effect,” Franchetti said.

Her cause has been heralded on the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s billboards, now known as the “Gateway to the Hamptons” and celebrities like Christie Brinkley have posted to social media about Kyra’s Law, Franchetti said. One-third of the state’s Assembly backs Kyra’s Law, and 10,000 emails have been sent to lawmakers from constituents in support, she added.

“In New York right now, we're at a tipping point, with everything in terms of moving legislation forward, and we have some incredible opportunities in really the immediate future to make a dramatic change to better protect children from abusive parents,” she said.

Kyra was remembered back in April at her favorite parks by a group of local children who planted pinwheels in the grass in her honor and that of 742 other child murder victims as part of Pinwheels for Prevention in the Parks to mark National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

The pinwheels were planted on April 4, what would have been Kyra’s seventh birthday, in Blumenfeld Park in Port Washington and Mary Jane Davis Green Park in Manhasset, two parks that were very special to her.

“She did not have to die,” Franchetti said.

Kyra is not the only child from Long Island to allegedly die during a custody battle. Thomas Valva of Center Moriches died in January 2020 after he was kept in a garage overnight by his former NYPD cop father and his fiancée, police said. His father was later charged with his murder and resigned from his job, Patch has previously reported.

A total of 19 New York children were murdered by their parent during a child custody case, divorce or separation in the last 5 years, according to a report by the Times Union. In the last 10 years, the deaths of 725 others have been kept hidden by local child protective services agencies and the state, according to another Times Union report.

Franchetti says she receives tons of messages from people in similar situations to the one she lived through and continues to advocate for.

She said that children are suffering “far too often” due to the failings of the family court system, “and that needs to change.”

The number of 19 “doesn't take into account all the children who are court-ordered into the home of a parent who's physically, sexually, or mentally abusing them, and that's happening at staggering rates,” she said.

“That is really the epidemic that will outlast the current pandemic,” Franchetti said.

Tuesday’s rally will be held outside 232 Main St., on the Landmark Theatre’s lawn. It starts at 6:30 p.m. with activities for children such as a musical performance by a former teacher of Kyra’s, Lynda Quinn. There will also be temporary tattoos, and free ice cream from Mel’s. In keeping with the safety theme, the Nassau County District Attorney’s office will be making child identity cards for parents.

The activities will be followed at 7:10 p.m. by speakers, including Franchetti who will speak about the legislation, Assemb. Hevesi, and State Sen. Todd Kaminski, as well as Town of North Hempstead councilwomen Veronica Lurvey and Mariann Dalimonte. The line-up will also include Bikers Against Child Abuse, and Keith Scott of The Safe Center LI.

The event will also include live entertainment from Bach2Rock Port Washington, and Language Anywhere will be on hand, and Sandrine Gold will have a Pinwheel Making/Decorating Station. There will also be remarks by Rev. Jimmy Only of the Manhasset Congregational Church and Rabbi Jodie Siff of the Reconstructionist Synagogue of North Shore.

The event will be held inside the theater if the weather is inclement.

Franchetti said that it will be a family-friendly event and it was “very important” for her to have children around.

There are also some tie-ins to the event. Lynda Quinn was Kyra’s first teacher when she and Franchetti took Mommy and Me classes, and the pinwheel-making station ties back to April’s Child Abuse Prevention Month’s Pinwheels for Prevention event.

“That is a beautiful, beautiful moment for me, and Kyra, every night before she went to bed, always wanted an ice pop,” Franchetti said. “To have Mel's there doing ice cream is very reminiscent of Kyra.”

Franchetti urged anyone looking to voice their support for the bills to visit www.KyrasChampions.org, where there is a link that will lead them to an area that they can contact their local representative in the state Legislature.