Woman jailed in death of boy, 5, whose body was found stuffed in ‘Las Vegas’ suitcase
A mushroom hunter discovered five-year-old Cairo Jordan’s body stuffed in a suitcase in rural southern Indiana in April 2022
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A Louisiana woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for helping stuff a five-year-old boy’s body inside a suitcase that was emblazoned with a distinctive Las Vegas design.
Dawn Elaine Coleman, 41, of Shreveport, Louisiana, learned of her fate in court this week after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the tragic 2022 death of five-year-old Cairo Ammar Jordan.
“You packaged Cairo up like trash… and dumped him like garbage,” Judge Larry Medlock said to Coleman at her sentencing hearing, CBS Louisville affiliate WLKY-TV reported.
“You chose not to stop it, not to call the authorities.”
On 26 April 2022, a mushroom hunter discovered Cairo’s body inside a hard-shell suitcase with the words “To Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada” across it.
The suitcase had been abandoned in a wooded area in rural southern Indiana, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Louisville, Kentucky.
An autopsy found that the little boy had died up to a week earlier from vomiting and diarrhoea that led to dehydration, Indiana State Police said.
Following the discovery of his body, no one came forward to identify the boy and he did not match the description of any missing children.
He was buried in June 2022 at a Salem, Indiana, cemetery after a memorial service where a police chaplain called the then-unidentified child an “unknown angel”.
When authorities finally identified the boy, they announced that Coleman and the boy’s mother, Dejuane Ludie Anderson, were wanted as suspects in his death.
A felony murder arrest warrant was issued for Ms Anderson in November 2022, but the Atlanta woman remains at large to this day, the prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.
Investigators determined that Coleman was acquainted with Ms Anderson and the two women were staying with Cairo in a home together in Louisville.
Police alleged that Coleman helped Ms Anderson dispose of her son’s body in April 2022.
Court documents obtained by ABC affiliate WHAS reveal that Coleman told investigators she had walked into a bedroom in the home to find Ms Anderson sitting on top of her son, who was lying facedown on the mattress.
She claimed that, by the time she entered the room, “it was already done” – meaning that Cairo was dead.
Coleman reportedly admitted that she then helped Ms Anderson stuff Cairo’s body into the suitcase and then drove with her to Indiana where they dumped it in the woods.
Authorities revealed both women’s fingerprints were discovered on the suitcase and cellphone data placed them at the location where the boy’s body was found just days earlier.
Court documents also revealed a slew of disconcerting posts on social media made by Cairo’s mother in the days before he was killed.
“I have survived the death attacks from my 5-year-old throughout the 5 years he has been alive,” she tweeted on 12 April 2022. “I have been able to weaken his powers through our blood. I have his real name, and he is 100 years old. Need assistance.”
She also wrote about plans “to exorcism [sic] a very powerful demonic force from within my son,” adding, “just because the avatar is of what we call a child does not mean that it is actually a child”.
“[T]here are beings that are here that are not supposed to be here that pick avatars to hide behind to play roles to steal energy and ruin lives,” she wrote in another post.
Ms Anderson is still wanted by the authorities.
Coleman will serve 25 years in prison and five years’ probation under the terms of her plea agreement, online court records show.
“This crime impacted not only Washington County, but became a nation-wide story,” County Prosecutor Tara Hunt said in a news release.
“The victim in this case was an innocent child who was barely five years old. It’s always tragic when a child’s life is taken. It’s incomprehensible when those who should be caring for the child are responsible.”