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).
A Kansas mother is behind bars for allegedly killing her toddler son via asphyxiation one month after she set a fire in the little boy’s bedroom, according to law enforcement in the Sunflower State.
Shanna Kay Whitton, 31, stands accused of one count each of felony murder in the first degree, abuse of a child, aggravated child endangerment and aggravated arson in connection with the death of 15-month-old Matthew Whitton, according to an amended criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime. The defendant was originally charged with eight arson-related offenses in October 2025.
The underlying incident occurred on Aug. 25, 2025, at the Mimosa Arms Apartments on East Janet Street in Clearwater, a small town located some 25 miles southwest of Wichita. It resulted in the death of Matthew, who had reportedly choked on food, according to the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office.
Responding officers found the boy unconscious and not breathing and performed lifesaving efforts until EMS personnel arrived and rushed him to a hospital in Wichita. The child was admitted in extremely critical condition and died three days later.
During the investigation into Matthew’s death, detectives with the sheriff’s office reviewed a fire that occurred at the apartments in July 2025, according to a report by Wichita-based ABC affiliate KAKE.
That fire, it turned out, had been started in Matthew’s bedroom while the boy was inside, according to law enforcement. Fire investigators further determined the fire had been intentionally set.
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.”
