Woman charged in death of Atlanta boy found in suitcase seeks venue change for Indiana trial
Dawn Elaine Coleman (Indiana State Police)
SALEM, Ind. - The Louisiana woman charged in connection to a 5-year-old boy whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase in southern Indiana is seeking a change of venue.
Dawn Coleman's attorney, Ryan Bower, filed the venue change request on her behalf last week arguing that public outrage over the child's death would prevent her from getting a fair trial. Bower told WTHR-TV Coleman, who is from Shreveport, Louisiana, would see bias in a jury due to public hostility against her, outrage over the boy's death, and media coverage.
A hearing is set for June 1 on the change of venue request for Coleman, who was arrested in San Francisco in October in connection with the death of 5-year-old Cairo Ammar Jordan of Atlanta. She's charged with aiding, inducing or causing murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and obstruction of justice.
Dejaune Anderson
A felony murder arrest warrant was issued in November for Cairo's mother, DeJaune Ludie Anderson of Atlanta. She remains at large.
Authorities allege that Coleman helped Anderson dispose of Cairo's body in April 2022. Court documents say that he died in Kentucky and his body was dumped in Indiana.
5-year-old boy's body found in suitcase in rural Indiana
Police said a man came across the suitcase while hunting wild mushrooms on his property on April 16, 2022. The suitcase was at the end of a dead-end road in a very rural area of Washington County, Indiana. The man opened it to find a pillow and a black trash bag containing the young child’s body.
Video obtained by police from a property owner near the scene shows part of the street. It showed a vehicle stop drive into the area where the suitcase was found around 4:53 p.m. on April 14, 2022.
The affidavit also states cellphones belonging to Anderson and Coleman were in the same area between 4:30 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. that day.
Investigators said they were able to lift prints from two different people on the suitcase and trash bag. Police said those match prints belonging to Anderson and Coleman.
Paternal grandparents of boy found dead in suitcase wish they saw Facebook posts
Relatives of the father of 5-year-old Cairo Ammar Jordan of Atlanta, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase in southern Indiana back in April, wish someone would have alerted them to the disturbing Facebook posts she was making leading up to his death.
The affidavit states the same Las Vegas-style hard-side suitcase found with the 5-year-old boy inside appears in photos on Coleman’s social media.
An autopsy found that the boy died from an electrolyte imbalance most likely due to gastroenteritis, or vomiting and diarrhea that led to dehydration, state police said in May. Investigators said the boy had died within a week prior to his body’s discovery.
MOTHER SAID ATLANTA CHILD WAS POSSESED BY DEMONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
He was buried in June at a Salem, Indiana, cemetery about 35 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky, after a memorial service where a police chaplain called the then-unidentified child an "unknown angel."
The mother of the 5-year-old made unusual posts to social media leading up to the young boy’s death.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Indiana State Police at 1-888-437-6432.
This story is being reported out of Atlanta. The Associated Press contributed to this report