A five-year-old’s terrified reaction to a tickle exposed a devastating family secret

Key points

• Kailee Stephenson, now 28, has shared her story of sexual abuse by her grandfather, Charles, when she was five years old. She says he began visiting more often while her mother was pregnant with twins and told her that what happened in the basement was a game.
• Four weeks later, a tickle from her aunt led to a terrified reaction, and she later told her mother. Police later closed the case due to a lack of physical evidence.
• Stephenson says her family believed her. In March 2026, she posted a video about her experience on TikTok.