Woman arrested in California in death of son found in suitcase by mushroom hunters
Dejaune L. Anderson was apprehended Thursday as she tried to board a train. Records show she posted on Facebook about a 'demonic child.'
The mother of a 5-year-old boy whose body was found in a suitcase in Indiana in 2022 was arrested near Arcadia on Thursday, March 15.
Sgt. Carey Huls, a spokesman for the Indiana State Police, said investigators from Sellersburg were en route to Southern California on Friday to pick up Dejaune L. Anderson, who was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service on a warrant that alleged murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and obstruction of justice.
Anderson, a resident of Atlanta, was apprehended as she attempted to board a passenger train.
Huls said Anderson had no known connection to Southern California. Detectives were tipped off to her presence by what police described as a concerned citizen. Huls declined to elaborate.
The investigation into the boy’s death began in April of 2022 when a man hunting for mushrooms found a suitcase in a heavily wooded area in rural Washington County, Indiana, the Indiana State Police said. The suitcase contained the body of Cairo Jordan, who went unidentified for six months.
Court records say that on March 18, 2022, Anderson posted on Facebook: “Can’t wait to tell this story. About the exorcism. A book about living with a demonic child. And a podcast,” according to Spectrum News 1 in Kentucky.
An Anderson friend, Dawn Elaine Coleman of Shreveport, Louisiana, told investigators that she saw Anderson sitting on top of Cairo on a bed. smothering him, according to court records. Coleman then helped Anderson dispose of the body. Coleman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in November and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
Cairo was buried in a local cemetery before he was identified. His headstone at the time read, “In loving memory of a beloved little boy known but to God,” the Courier-Journal said.