‘I never got to meet my granddaughter’: Baby Peyton’s family speaks out amid infant death investigation

ABILENE, Texas ( KTAB/KRBC ) – With suspects in custody and new information being released in the August 31st discovery of an infant’s body at Lake Fort Phantom Hill, Amy Davis, the biological grandmother of baby Peyton Skye Davis is speaking out in search of justice for the little girl she never got the chance to meet. Peyton’s passing came mere months after her birth.

“We’re devastated… You can say anything, but it’s not going to bring Peyton back. There’s nothing we can do to bring her back. So all we can do is be her voice right now for her,” Davis told KTAB/KRBC.

On September 13th, Peyton’s mother, 20-year-old Heather Kennedy, and her boyfriend, 35-year-old Donald Schultz, were taken into custody in connection with the investigation. Amy, who lives in Nevada near Peyton’s father and her son, Anthony Davis, says they had been kept largely in the dark about Peyton’s well-being, though not for lack of trying to reach out.

“We would try to call or try to text her, and she would always threaten us with harassment. We had every right to see how Peyton was doing. So we were always made to believe that she was alive and fine,” said Amy.

According to Amy, Kennedy and Anthony were together in Idaho in early 2024 when they conceived Peyton. She had moved back to Nevada before Peyton’s birth on February 24, 2024. During this time, she would receive photos of Peyton, though she states that Kennedy would allegedly regularly leave the baby with Anthony for “days at a time to go off and do God knows what.”

“The truth is I never got a chance to meet her… I never got to meet my granddaughter,” Amy said.

Sometime between February and June, Amy said her son and Kennedy were at odds. Kennedy, she claimed, would speak to other men and had rejected Anthony’s marriage proposal. This is when Kennedy allegedly met Schultz. Amy said it was in June that they left for Texas, taking Peyton with them and cutting off all contact.

After the arrest, Kennedy initially told police that Peyton was with Anthony in another state. A newly released search warrant and interview information from the investigation reveal that Anthony had told detectives that Peyton was not with him in Nevada and that he had been trying to contact Kennedy, though he said his number had been blocked.

Photos of Peyton Skye Davis shared by Grandmother Amy Davis

“I had gotten a call from a detective asking where Anthony was and if Anthony had Peyton. I go, ‘I can guarantee you Anthony does not have Peyton’… He was like well, we’re just checking on her wellbeing…. I just had a gut feeling,” Amy recalled.

Amy said the night she got that call, she went online to search for missing children in Abilene, Texas. There, she found headlines of a deceased infant found at the lake. The headlines confirmed her fears and feelings.

“My heart just sunk. The next morning, Anthony got confirmation and called me and told me,” Amy said.

She said she had been concerned for some time as they were not able to communicate with Kennedy or anyone around Peyton at her home in Abilene, Texas. She added that Anthony had moved back to Nevada, hoping to fight for Peyton’s custody.

“It breaks my heart because…. Anthony wanted to get back down here, get established with a good job, and fight for custody… He would cry because he missed Peyton so much… If she didn’t want Peyton any more she could have just given her to Anthony… I think that fathers need more custodial rights,” said Amy.

Amy underlined their current state at the end of the conversation, saying, “When we found out on Friday, Anthony kept asking me, ‘Why, mom? Why mom?’ All I could tell him was, ‘ I don’t know. I don’t know, honey… We’re trying to deal with it the best we can. We’re just really grieving.”

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