Woman charged in death of Atlanta boy found in suitcase takes plea deal, will be sentenced
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 will be sentenced next week after taking a plea deal earlier this month.
Dawn Coleman, from Shreveport, Louisiana, was arrested in San Francisco in October 2022 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.
A felony murder arrest warrant was issued in November 2022 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.
Coleman is expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison, with a year-and-a-half credit for time served, at a hearing on Nov. 21. Five years of probation will follow her prison sentence.
She is also obligated to testify against Anderson when she is caught and tried.
Coleman told investigators she walked into the Louisville home where the three were staying and found Anderson on top of her son’s body, who was face-down on the mattress, according to court documents.
She then admitted to putting the young boy’s body into a suitcase and driving to a very rural area of Washington County, Indiana, where they dumped it, documents reveal.
Coleman was originally scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 23, 2023.
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.
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.
Video obtained by police from a property owner near the scene shows part of the street. It showed a vehicle stop in 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.
Mother wanted for death of 5-year-old son found stuff in suitcase
Dejaune Ludie Anderson (Indiana State Police)
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 POSSESSED 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.