Ohio law enforcement officials said that the three suspects in the alleged torture and murder of a 7-year-old boy had planned in advance to kidnap and kill him.

Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Connie Pillich said in a media briefing Thursday that officials had text message evidence from the Signal encryption app about the alleged plot.

'They failed miserably as parents. Instead, they committed atrocious acts, causing this child to suffer terribly.'

7-year-old William Evans-Ellis was found dead, bound and wrapped with duct tape in a closet at his mother's apartment in Oakley that she shared with two other people, as previously reported by Blaze News.

Pillich revealed that the boy had been dead for a day before his body was found. She also said that the three suspects had taken a dog to a veterinarian the day before he was found, which raises suspicion that he was already dead when they left.

Police arrested 38-year-old Kaitlin Evans, the boy's biological mother, as well as 23-year-old Nessa Keaney and 33-year-old Kirby Rankin. The three were indicted on more than a dozen charges that include aggravated murder, murder, kidnapping, and felonious assault.

Keany and Rankin have been described as women by the media, but police records indicate they are both biological males.

The coroner's office found the child had died of blunt force trauma to the head and had numerous other injuries indicating prolonged and severe abuse.

"This child was failed by the adults who were supposed to protect him," said Pillich. "The child was only 7 years old. He was vulnerable, he was dependent on the adults around him, and he deserved to be protected from harm. Instead, he endured horrific abuse and ultimately lost his life."

Among the injuries listed were a broken bone, bruises too numerous to count, possible burn marks, and water torture.

"This is a horrific, monstrous, unfathomable act," Pillich added. "They failed miserably as parents. Instead, they committed atrocious acts, causing this child to suffer terribly."

The charges carry a possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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"This case has been heartbreaking and deeply disturbing from the beginning," Pillich said. "Nothing can undo what happened to the child, but we can make sure his death is fully investigated and that those responsible face the consequences in court."

The three suspects are each being held on a bond of $1.1 million. The attorneys for the two males have formally requested competency evaluations.

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Three "women" are accused in the torture death of 7-year-old Ohio boy — but authorities said two of the suspects are male who co-parented the victim with his mother.

Cincinnati police said the Mercy Rookwood emergency department called Thursday after a woman claimed that someone was trying to kill her and her boy.

'We saw injuries that would indicate physical beatings, blunt force injuries from a striking device on the face, torso, back, upper and lower extremities ...'

"We have somebody that came in and kind of just dropped herself on the floor. She's barefoot. She thinks that her partner's trying to kill her, that they took her son," the worker said in the call to police.

"She's saying that he's hiding him up in the attic. She is sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth and barefoot," the worker added.

Hours later officers were called to a home on Madison Road in Oakley over a "suspicious death."

They found William Evans-Ellis bound and wrapped with duct tape in a closet. Police arrested two males who had been co-parenting with the victim's mother, who also was arrested.

Cincinnati police detective Kyle Smith said in court that the case is "one of the most disturbing examples of child abuse" he'd ever seen.

"From what we could see, we saw injuries that would indicate physical beatings, blunt force injuries from a striking device on the face, torso, back, upper and lower extremities. Impact injuries to the back of the head," Smith said.

"We believe that there was, for lack of a better term, some water torture involved," he added. "We believe the victim was choked under water, held under water for a long period of time. There was some burn torture involved, and the victim was found duct taped in positions that immobilized him."

The boy also was revealed to have been "mentally handicapped."

An attorney for 38-year-old Kaitlin Evans — the boy's biological mother — admitted that she had not done enough to save her child but denied that she had killed him. Evans accused one of the two other suspects of killing the boy.

The attorney for 23-year-old Nessa Keaney said he tried to administer "treatment" to the boy and claimed Keaney was the "least culpable" for the boy's death.

A detective testified that the third suspect, 33-year-old Kirby Rankin, admitted to his part in the abuse and had implicated Keaney and Evans as "active participants" in the abuse of the boy.

The victim's biological father also spoke in court.

"Willie was my life, and I trusted you to care for him. They kept him from me for the past nine months over lies," the father said.

A WXIX-TV news video described the suspects only as "people," and other outlets described them as women — but Keaney's arrest record lists him as a male, and Rankin also is listed as a male, while Evans is listed as a female.

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Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Rodney Harris set each suspect's bond at $1.1 million — $1 million for murder and $100,000 for child endangering, WXIX said, adding that all three pleaded not guilty and are expected back in court later this month.

Officials apparently missed a chance to save the boy months prior to his death, when Rankin attacked a woman in a parking lot amid a driving dispute. The woman suffered fractured teeth, a concussion, a neck injury, and a torn meniscus — and asked police to charge Rankin with a felony. He was charged only with a misdemeanor and aggravated menacing.

"I asked to go to [the] grand jury. They refused. I kept being told because she was hit one time it wasn’t a felony, which is absolutely absurd," Lance Bunnell, the husband of the victim and a retired law enforcement captain, said.

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