Inset left: Shanna Kay Whitton (Sedgwick County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Matthew Whitton (Obituary). Background: The apartment complex where Whitton allegedly killed her son in Clearwater, Kan. (Google Maps).
In Kansas, a mother has been arrested for allegedly causing the death of her toddler by asphyxiation, just a month after allegedly setting a fire in the child’s bedroom. This information was released by local authorities.
Shanna Kay Whitton, aged 31, has been charged with several serious offenses, including first-degree felony murder, child abuse, aggravated child endangerment, and aggravated arson, in relation to the death of her 15-month-old son, Matthew Whitton. These charges come from an amended criminal complaint accessed by Law&Crime, following her initial arrest in October 2025 on eight arson-related charges.
The tragic events unfolded on August 25, 2025, at the Mimosa Arms Apartments located on East Janet Street in Clearwater, roughly 25 miles southwest of Wichita. Authorities from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office reported that Matthew had tragically choked on food during the incident that led to his death.
Upon arriving at the scene, officers discovered the toddler unconscious and not breathing. They provided emergency medical treatment until paramedics arrived and transported him to a hospital in Wichita. Matthew was in extremely critical condition and sadly passed away three days later.
As part of the investigation into Matthew’s death, detectives from the sheriff’s office revisited a fire that occurred in July 2025 at the same apartment complex, according to a report by Wichita’s ABC affiliate KAKE.
Authorities revealed that this earlier fire had been set in Matthew’s bedroom while he was present. Investigators concluded that the fire had been deliberately ignited, adding another layer to the troubling case.
The child’s autopsy was finally completed in January of this year and the medical examiner’s office determined he died of complications from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy caused by an intentionally inflicted asphyxia event — or, in other words, that he was intentionally deprived of oxygen. His manner of death was ruled a homicide.
Whitton has been in custody since her arrest on six counts of aggravated arson and two counts of arson, court records show.
Earlier this month, detectives presented their findings on Matthew’s death to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
“These investigations take time because we have a responsibility to get them right,” Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter told KAKE. “Our detectives are committed to putting the pieces together and being a voice for children who can’t speak for themselves.”
The sheriff’s emphasis on children in the plural sense was not just a turn of phrase. In comments to KAKE, the sheriff said detectives are also investigating the death of Whitton’s 2-year-old daughter Gypsy Rose, whose obituary refers to her as Jolene “Jojo” Naomi.
Gypsy died in July 2024. Easter said detectives will apprise prosecutors of additional facts as they become available.
Gypsy Rose Whitton, also known as Jolene “Jojo” Naomi Whitton (Obituary).
In the latest criminal complaint, the defendant is accused of impeding “the normal breathing or circulation of the blood by blocking the nose and/or mouth of” Matthew in August 2025. The complaint also looks back to the fire and accuses Whitton of placing Matthew in a “situation in which the child’s life, body or health is endangered” in July 2025.
“They took him out on the gurney and he never came back home,” Whitton’s downstairs neighbor recently told KAKE.
The neighbor recalled the defendant’s original alleged excuse about Matthew choking after eating food — but said even that explanation was subject to changing narratives by the mother.
“First, she told people it was a meatball from spaghetti with sauce,” a neighbor continued. “Then the Spaghetti-Os with sauce in it.”
The sheriff suggested other instances of abuse as well.
“A couple of those occasions where he nearly drowned, another type of choking incident and another one was on July 26, which was an apartment fire,” Easter told the TV station this week.
The neighbor also remembered the day of the fire.
“Everybody was outside, and she stood there quietly, and said, ‘his nursery caught on fire,’” the neighbor told KAKE. “When they came to take her away, the Lord answered my prayers.”
