Back in April, the remains of a little boy were found inside a novelty “Welcome to the fabulous Las Vegas” suitcase.
For six months, his identity remained a mystery. No one came forward. No one reported him missing.
Now, the little boy finally has a name.
Cairo Jordan should have celebrated his sixth birthday on Wednesday.
Instead, his mother is on the run wanted for his murder – with online posts about exorcisms, hexes and curses, and her “demonic” child offering a chilling glimpse into the terrors the small child may have endured in his final days.
The mystery body in the suitcase
The harrowing tale began on the evening of 16 April when a mushroom hunter stumbled across the suitcase abandoned by the side of a road in a rural area of Washington County, Indiana.
The distinctive hard-shell case was emblazoned with “Welcome to the fabulous Las Vegas”.
But inside the novelty item, the man made a grim discovery.
Finding the crumpled body of a small Black boy, he called 911.
Investigators with Indiana State Police were stumped as to the little boy’s identity.
The local Washington County community held a funeral for the unnamed child.
In May, an autopsy revealed that he died from electrolyte imbalance, which was likely caused by viral gastroenteritis – an inflammation of the stomach and intenstines that causes vomiting and diarrhea, and ultimately dehydration.
His blood toxicology was negative and there was no significant signs of trauma on his body.
His name is Cairo
Six months on from the grim discovery, Indiana State Police announced on Wednesday that the little boy had been identified as Cairo Ammar Jordan.
Cairo, from Atlanta, Georgia, was five years old at the time of his death.
Police said that the boy’s mother Dejaune Ludie Anderson, 37, murdered Cairo last April after posting disturbing posts on social media about him being a demon.
A second woman, 40-year-old Dawn Elaine Coleman, is also accused of causing the boy’s death.
The two women each face charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in death and obstruction of justice, while Ms Anderson also faces an additional charge of murder.
Ms Coleman, of Shreveport, Louisiana, was arrested on 19 October in San Francisco, police said.
Indiana State Police Sgt Carey Huls told The Independent on Thursday that she had been interviewed by detectives but would not confirm or deny whether or not she was cooperating with the investigation.
It is unclear what connection she has to Cairo and his mother.
She is not believed to be related to Ms Anderson and there is “no definite connection other than them being acquaintances or friends”, said Sgt Huls.
“They’re just acquiantances who travel together and possibly work together,” he said.
Ms Anderson, from Atlanta, Georgia, remains on the run.
Investigators issued a warrant for her arrest, revealing that she was last seen in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.
It is not clear when exactly the last sighting was but The Independent has learned that troopers were searching the area last week and believe the mother was still there at that time.
Ms Anderson is described as a Black woman with short, dark brown hair who is 5’5” tall, weighs 135 pounds and is known to wear wigs and extensions.
Exorcisms and demons
What exactly led a mother to allegedly murder her young son and dump his body in a suitcase in a case that has spanned multiple states remains a mystery.
But a look at Ms Anderson’s disturbing social media posts offers some clues.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Ms Anderson made several social media posts about exorcisms, hexes and demons.
On April 12, just four days before his remains were found, she wrote on Facebook that her five-year-old son was actually a 100-year-old demon.
“I have survived the death attacks from my 5-year-old throughout the 5 years he has been alive. 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 wrote.
One day before his body was discovered, she made another chilling post that read in part “this is a whole demon in a child body”.
The concerning posts began as far back as December 2021 when she wrote: “I offer, Reversal spell, Protection spell, Activating your DNA, Exorcism, Hex/Curse.”
The affidavit reveals that her alleged accomplice also made several posts about children being “avatars” and warning that “evil and wicked is hiding in plain sight”.
In one post from 8 April, Ms Coleman wrote: “You better check to see if the children that you think are children actually have souls or if they’re not malevolent beings with a soul.”
The evidence
The net closed in on the two suspects when testing found both of their fingerprints on trash bags inside the suitcase with Cairo’s body, police said.
Investigators quickly learned from official records and her Facebook page that Ms Anderson had a five-year-old son.
Cellphone location data then placed both of the women at the dump site between 4.30pm and 5.15pm on 14 April.
Surveillance footage also captured a vehicle driving along the dead-end road where Cairo’s remains were found at around 4.35pm that same day.
Police said that photos and videos on Coleman’s Facebook page show her with the same distinctive “Welcome to Las Vegas” suitcase.
On the day that Cairo’s remains were found, Ms Anderson’s vehicle was captured on security cameras driving from Jeffersonville, Indiana, to Louisville, Kentucky.
In another bizarre twist, Ms Anderson had listed her five-year-old son as an employee in her logistics business, according to the affidavit.
Records show that Ms Anderson is the owner and CEO of Ashley Logistics Corporation in Georgia. The records show Cairo as the company secretary.
Crime spree
It has also emerged that Ms Anderson had multiple brushes with the law in the lead-up to her son’s death – and had been sprung from jail just five days before his body was discovered.
On 12 March, she is accused of leading police on a chase in South Carolina, according to the affidavit.
Both Cairo and Ms Coleman were inside the car at the time.
Officials said that police spotted her vehicle driving at 92 mph on a 60 mph road and when they tried to pull her over, she refused to stop.
The chase lasted for around 30 miles, until her car eventually ran out of gas.
Even then, both Ms Anderson and Ms Coleman refused to comply with officers’ commands to let them inside the car, leaving officers forced to break the rear driver’s side window.
Ms Anderson was arrested for child engagement, speeding and failure to stop and taken to jail.
She allegedly told officers that Ms Coleman was her sister and the 40-year-old was taken with Cairo to a nearby Hilton hotel.
Days later, on 31 March, Ms Anderson was arrested again – this time for robbery.
She was allegedly caught red-handed trying to steal clothes from a shopping mall and punched a security guard in the face,
She was released on bail on 11 April and has failed to return to court for her preliminary hearing.
A heartbreaking tribute
As news of the child’s identity was finally released, Cairo’s father revealed in heartbreaking detail how he had heard about the case of the boy in the suitcase – and could never have imagined it would be his own son.
“Today my heart was broken into a million pieces. I got a call from an officer telling me that my 5 year old son Cairo Jordan (who ironically turned 6 today) was murdered by his mother Dejuan Anderson in Indiana April 14th 2022,” Vincent Jordan wrote on Instagram on Wednesday.
“It’s October 25th his birthday and they are just now notifying me about his death.”
Mr Jordan said that he had been embroiled in a custody battle with his ex and that she had taken him back in 2017.
He has been looking for his son for three years, he said.
“Me and my family have spent the past three years looking for Dejuan and Cairo. She took him away at the beginning of our custody battle back in 2017, she threatened to call the police on me for coming to pick him up on a agreed weekend,” he said.
“She never showed up in court and its killing me because that weekend is the last time I seen my baby boy. I swear y’all don’t know the pain, as a father I feel defeated this was the only thing I feared on this earth.”
He said that he was “sick to my stomach” to learn that the child on the news was his own.
“The unidentified little boy who was found in a suitcase is my Son! Cairo Jordan His story has been on CNN and other news platforms for the past 6 months and whole time it’s my child OMFG!!!!” he wrote.
“Boy when I tell you I’m sick to my stomach Everyone knows how I am about my kids and I never thought I would’ve got that call today, this is a parent’s worse nightmare.”
