Caledonia, Mich. — In an emotional plea before lawmakers, Brandi Morey-Pols shared how she tried in vain to save her 6-year-old son, Rowan, from the man she says was visibly spiraling. Instead, she said, every system designed to protect children — law enforcement, Child Protective Services (CPS), and the courts — failed catastrophically.

Rowan was found murdered in a suspected murder-suicide involving his father, Michael Winchell, in August 2023. Days before Rowan’s 7th birthday, deputies from the Isabella County Sheriff’s Office discovered his lifeless body after repeated pleas from his mother went unanswered for more than two days.

“I experienced a life-altering event nine months ago today,” Morey-Pols told lawmakers. “Since that moment, I have wondered what excuse a mother should accept when her child has been missing for 52 hours.”

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Instead of answers, Morey-Pols said she was met with apathy. “It’s a civil matter,” she recalled being told by multiple deputies. “We’ve done two wellness checks…we can’t do an Amber Alert because it’s a custody matter.” One sheriff even reportedly yelled at a dispatcher, frustrated that she kept calling. “Do you want to talk to my supervisor? Shut up. I’m sure he’s fine,” the mother recalled the deputy saying.

Rowan was not fine.

According to Isabella County investigators and reporting from WWMT and 9&10 News, deputies believe Rowan was killed by his father, who then took his own life. Brandi Morey-Pols said that it wasn’t even Isabella County law enforcement who delivered the news — Kent County sheriffs did.

“They weren’t even the ones that found my son,” she said. “They sent Kent County sheriffs to deliver their bad news.”

‘I Told Them. Over and Over Again.’
Morey-Pols testified that Judge Eric Jaynes, the same judge who signed the original custody order in 2020, denied her emergency motion to get Rowan back even after she presented evidence that the child was still alive. “Why did I need another motion for him to sign when he signed our original order?” she asked. “And he denied it.”

But it wasn’t just the court. According to Morey-Pols, CPS caseworkers dismissed her reports of neglect and abuse. The child’s father, she said, shaved Rowan’s head bald repeatedly — sometimes before family events and milestones — and denied the boy food and access to preschool. Rowan allegedly told his mother he lived off toast and that his father slept all day.

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“He started self-harming,” Morey-Pols said. “He threw his head into a metal table at dinner. He bruised himself at the pool. I was beside myself.”

Still, CPS closed the case, reportedly telling her that there was “nothing there.” One caseworker allegedly told her, “He can take care of his hygiene the way he sees fit on his parenting time.”

Morey-Pols was incredulous. “If he was a little girl getting his head shaved, you’d care,” she remembered saying. “And she closed it anyway.”

A System That ‘Did Nothing’
The mother testified that despite repeated calls to law enforcement, probation officers, CPS, and court referees, no one intervened — even after she warned them that her ex, a convicted felon, had weapons and was abusing prescription drugs.

“He was a felon who hit two cars doing 120 miles per hour and blew a .39. He broke his back and hip and suffered a head injury. After that, he was on Vicodin, Norco, morphine, and fentanyl,” Morey-Pols said.

She believes this was key information that CPS ignored. “I told CPS. I told Foxx (the court referee). I told Isabella County sheriffs. He was on drugs,” she said. “They did nothing.”

When deputies finally responded, the damage was done. Rowan was dead. “They had to cut into the little body I made,” she said, sobbing. “They didn’t even reach out to us. We got the autopsy report from a friend who called in a favor.”

‘No Faith Left’
After the tragedy, Morey-Pols said not a single person from CPS or the courts reached out to her — only sheriff’s deputies on the day of the death. And to this day, Judge Jaynes remains on the bench.

“There should be no wait time for children,” she said. “Eliminate that completely. And bypass the judge.”

She is now pushing for “Rowan’s Act,” a legislative reform package she hopes will force courts, law enforcement, and CPS to take high-conflict custody cases more seriously. Her suggestions include:

Mandatory mental health evaluations for both parents in contested custody cases.

Oversight of prescription drug use, particularly opioids and mood-altering medications.

Mandatory parental communication apps.

Stronger consequences for ignoring signs of emotional abuse.

“There’s not enough emphasis on mental and emotional abuse — but it almost always leads to physical abuse and death,” she warned.

A Voice for Rowan
Brandi Morey-Pols described Rowan as bright and bubbly, someone who needed “mommy’s back tickles to fall asleep” and who loved to name the moles on his body with his mother.

“I only remembered a few,” she said. “But he didn’t know that — he’d always ask, ‘What’s this one’s name?’ And I’d make one up.”

Now, Rowan’s voice is gone. But his mother’s remains.

“I did everything I was supposed to do,” she said. “And they still failed him.”