Indiana Police Identify Boy Found in a Suitcase – Arrest Warrant Issued for Mother
Today, in a press conference the Indiana State Police announced that they have one suspect in custody and are searching for another in connection with the death of the boy found in a suitcase in Southern Indiana.
Back in April of 2022, a mushroom hunter came across a hard-shell Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada suitcase that contained the body of a five-year-old boy approximately 80 feet off a dead-end rural road in Washington County.
The boy has been identified as Cairo Ammar Jordan from Atlanta, Georgia. An autopsy revealed that he died of an electrolyte imbalance, likely caused by viral gastroenteritis. He would have been six on October 24th.
The ISP stated that though they had very little to go on initially, they used the most up-to-date crime scene technologies including physical evidence laboratory techniques, electronic and digital communication, and social media forensic techniques.
The press release states that:
On October 14, 2022, the Washington County Circuit Court issued felony arrest warrants for Dawn Elaine Coleman, 40, of Shreveport, Louisiana, and Dejaune Ludie Anderson, 37, of Atlanta, Georgia, for charges of Neglect of a Dependent Resulting in Death, a Level 1 Felony, and Obstruction of Justice, a Level 6 Felony. Additionally, investigators identified Dejaune Anderson as the biological mother of the deceased child.
Based on information gathered during Detective Busick's continuing investigation, on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, the Washington County Circuit Court issued an arrest warrant for Dejaune Ludie Anderson for the charge of Murder.
NBC News stated that the probable cause affidavit obtained by Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB cited fingerprints on the trashbag that encased the child as what led police to Coleman and Anderson. In March, Anderson was arrested for leading a high-speed chase with Coleman and Cairo in the car. She was arrested again at the end of March for shoplifting at a mall in Louisville, KY. When she was released from jail on April 11th, she posted a cryptic Facebook message, "just got out of a jail mission" and "yes had to do some healing and killing" among other messages in the following days about her son being demonic. The affidavit went on to state that cell phone towers place Coleman and Anderson where the suitcase was found.
The Courier-Journal stated that Cairo was laid to rest in a baby blue coffin surrounded by stuffed animals in Salem, Indiana. His funeral was attended by several community members who never knew the boy. At the time of the funeral, his identity wasn't known so the Washington County Sheriff's chaplain Todd Murphy gave him a name during his funeral service. "He is an unknown angel who has been adopted by us, and Angel is what we will call him."
ISP is looking to the public to help locate Dejaune Ludie Anderson. She is described as a Black Female, 5-05, approximately 135 pounds. She had short, dark brown hair in her last known photo (shown below), but she is known to often wear wigs or hair extensions. All subjects are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.