Georgia's 'Baby Jane Doe' identified; mother and ex-boyfriend charged with murder, GBI says
Kenyatta Odom, age 5 (Credit: Georgia Bureau of Investigation)
WARE COUNTY, Ga. - After 35 years, authorities say they've made a breakthrough in one of Georgia's longest unsolved cold cases.
On Dec. 21, 1988, road workers found the body of the girl in a discarded TV cabinet at a known illegal dumping site off of Duncan Bridge Road in Ware County. No one came forward to claim the child’s body, and she was given the name "Baby Jane Doe" by investigators.
The investigation continued with very few breaks in the case until recently, when authorities say a tipster contacted them saying that she believed she knew who the girl was. The tipster told them that around the time the body had been discovered, a girl she had known had gone missing, and she had been told by the girl's mother that the child had gone to live with her father.
"This person never really believed that story," GBI Special Agent Jason Seacrist said.
After following the lead, officials say in June they identified the little girl as 5-year-old Kenyatta "Keke" Odom and charged her mother, Evelyn Odom, and Evelyn's live-in boyfriend at the time, Ulyster Sanders Sr., with her death.
According to the indictment reported by First Coast News, Odom and Sanders killed Kenyatta Odom by submerging her in hot water at their home in Albany, Georgia. After her death, the couple encased the girl's body in cement, placed it in the cabinet and drove hours away to dump it in the woods.
According to the indictment reported by First Coast News, Odom and Sanders encased Kenyatta's body in cement, placed it in the cabinet and drove hours away to dump it in the woods. (Credit: Georgia Bureau of Investigation)
Forensic experts connected the body to Albany due to a newspaper nearby and believed the child died up to three months before she was found and was wrapped in several layers, investigators say.
Cold case investigators were hopeful when a forensic artist created the new images from a 3D scan of the victim’s skull six years ago. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children created a new composite image of what the girl would have looked like.
Digital reconstructions of Georgia's "Baby Jane Doe" created in 2017. (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children )
In early November, a grand jury indicted Odom and Sanders on charges of felony murder, first-degree child cruelty, aggravated battery-family violence, conspiracy to conceal a death and concealing a death.