Benefit Saturday for late mom of missing Chisholm child LeeAnna Warner

Warner’s daughters Karlee and Whitney have been “overwhelmed” since their mom’s diagnosis and now her death—and the family has been through so much during the past nearly 20 years, said friend and a benefit organizer, Robin Ylatupa. “They’ve been dealing with their sister missing all these years.”

LeeAnna, fondly known as “Beaner,” was 5 years old when she went missing from Chisholm on June 14, 2003. She was last seen by her parents at 5 p.m. that day, when they assumed she went to a friend’s house one block away from their home at 19 S.W. 2nd St., according to reports.

The child’s disappearance was a high profile case in Minnesota and made national headlines. It has also been featured on national programs. The Chisholm Police Department continues to work on the unsolved case.

LeeAnna’s mom and family never gave up hope of finding the little girl, who would now be 24. Kaelin Warner created a Facebook page, Missing LeeAnna Warner, to generate attention for her missing child, and her other two daughters will take over the page.

Saturday’s benefit, set for 1 p.m. at Sidelines Sports Bar, 217 W. Lake St., in Chisholm, is a chance to support the family, not only financially, but also emotionally and mentally, said family friends.

Warner loved to play darts, and it will include a darts tournament hosted by Dylan Perkovich, Ylatupa said. There will be food, raffles, and drawings.

“We are still doing the benefit,” initially planned before Warner’s death, she said. Warner’s daughters do not live in the area and have endured transportation costs since their mom became sick, and medical costs are mounting from hospital stays and air medical transport from the Iron Range to Duluth.

“Kaelin didn’t have life or medical insurance,” Ylatupa added.

Warner’s daughters also created a GoFundMe page, organized by Whitney Schupp.

“We are in shock,” Schupp wrote on the page after her mom’s passing. “Now that she is gone, Karlee and I are faced with the many challenges and struggles that will be thrown our way.”

Schupp further explained on the site: “This past year Kaelin got divorced. Due to the divorce, she lost her medical insurance and life insurance. The main reason we started a GoFundMe for our mom was to help her financially keep up, recover, and be able to live without the stress of piling-up debt.”

That debt will now lie on Warner’s daughters, Ylatupa said.

“Anyone who knows Kaelin knows that she is the most loving, giving, kind person, who would do anything for anyone,” the daughters also wrote on the GoFundMe page, which has raised nearly half of the $30,000 goal.

Warner’s longtime friends agreed.

“She would reach out if you needed anything. She’d help anybody with anything,” said Lori Mart, who also helped to plan the Chisholm benefit.

“She was a sweetheart,” Ylatupa said. “She’d be there for anybody when anyone needed anything.”

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According to the GoFundMe page, Warner had been battling an “intense case of pneumonia” in the months prior to diagnosis, but still attended her daughter’s wedding and celebrated her 49th birthday on Oct. 26.

A few days later, however, on Oct. 29 “she didn’t feel well and went to the emergency room (in Hibbing),” Ylatupa said.

A mass the size of a tangerine was discovered on the upper right quadrant of her right lung, and Warner was transferred to Essentia Health in Duluth, where she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Small Cell Carcinoma, an aggressive, fast-moving cancer. Due to the location of the mass, it was deemed inoperable, and the family was told Warner would never go into remission, but could be assisted with treatments of radiation and chemotherapy.

“She had a round of hard chemo, but an infection set in after that,” Mart explained.

Warner was hospitalized from Oct. 29 to Nov. 7, then returned home. “Within days she lost her hair, experienced severe muscle atrophy, and all of the accompanying side effects of her disease and the chemotherapy,” according the GoFundMe page.

In mid-November, Warner began having difficulty breathing. She was again transferred to the Duluth hospital, where she was intubated and eventually removed from the ventilator.

Warner was able to return home for Thanksgiving, but was back in the hospital days later, Ylatupa said. Doctors determined the cancer had metastasized to Warner’s liver and she was upgraded to a Stage 4.

Warner was put on life support to give her body time to heal and fight the infection, in hopes of restarting chemo.

“On Saturday, 12/10, the doctors gathered us all together in a tiny room to inform us that they had done everything they possibly could to keep our mom alive,” Schupp wrote in a GoFundMe update. “But, the damage done to her lung from the chemo and the cancer was just too much to come back from. We gathered around her hospital bed surrounding her with love, as we watched her take her last breath.”

Her partner, Matthew Nelson, was also at her side during her illness.

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Warner’s friends said she loved the outdoors, and was outgoing and fun to be around. But most of all, Warner loved her children.

The business community has been generous with donating items for Saturday’s benefit, and all contributions to the family will be greatly appreciated, organizers said.

But there is another way to honor Warner—by continuing the search for LeeAnna, they said.

“We would love it if anybody has any leads on her missing daughter,” Mart said. “It would be a blessing to the family.”

LeeAnna was reported to be wearing a one-piece blue denim dress with an attached belt, and a pair of orange Hanes brand underwear at the time of her disappearance. The brown-haired, brown-eyed child’s right ear was pierced and she was wearing a flower earring with a red garnet stone in the middle, and she was also reported to have a wart on the base of her left ankle.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children poster includes an age-progression depiction to 15 years.

According to Chisholm Police, the department continues to work on leads, and law enforcement agencies, including the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, are always willing to help.

Following LeeAnna’s disappearance, hundreds of volunteers combed the area near her home, searching for the child. Despite many leads throughout the years, her case remains unsolved, according to officials.

Last year, the LeeAnna Warner case once again was brought into the national and world spotlight as People Magazine Investigates featured a segment called, “Little Girl Gone,” on Channel Investigation Discovery, also known as the ID Network.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Chisholm Police Department by dialing 911. You may also contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.

Kaelin’s daughter added on the fundraising page that her mom’s Iron Range community “has helped our family so much over the years with our sister LeeAnna, and we are hoping they can come together again to help…”

“We cannot thank you all enough for the support you have given us for the last month. We knew our mom had an incredible impact on the community, but you all had such an impact on her. So, thank you for everything you all have done for her and our family.”