Kennedy lived a hard life at the time. She was hooked on heroin and marijuana and lived with a boyfriend, apart from her son, in a house with a sinking roof and no running water or heat. They would wash up by borrowing water from next door and heating it on a stove.

A few years ago, she said, she got arrested for biting a cop while handcuffed and trying to wriggle free through the window of his patrol car.

“I’m not a superstar or nothing like that,” she said in an interview. “I used to do bad stuff. But jail made me think about myself.”

She had dropped out of Lindbergh High School after getting pregnant with Jaden, and ultimately obtained a certification in computer technology from St. Louis Job Corps. She lacked direction in life but took some community college classes and found work at a fast-food restaurant and a parcel shipping company.

In November 2015, Kennedy got a call from her mother saying police were looking to arrest her for a homicide. They had said their suspect was the mother of two daughters.

“So I said, ‘Take me to the police station because I don’t want them looking for me, and it’s not me,’” Kennedy said. “And I don’t have two daughters.”