Mom arrested for murder of 5-year-old found dead in suitcase in Indiana woods
SALEM, Ind. (WISH) — The mother of a 5-year-old boy found dead in a suitcase in a southern Indiana woods in 2022 has been arrested in a Los Angeles suburb, the Indiana State Police said Friday.
A mushroom hunter in the early evening of April 16, 2020, found Cairo Ammar Jordan, of Atlanta, Georgia, in a suitcase adorned with the “Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada” sign. The heavily wooded area where the suitcase was found is in eastern Washington County, about an hour’s drive northwest of downtown Louisville, Kentucky.
Jordan’s mother, Dejuane Ludie Anderson, was arrested Thursday in Arcadia, California. An arrest warrant issued in October 2022 listed charges as murder; neglect of a dependent resulting in death; and obstruction of justice, Indiana State Police say.
A tip from “a concerned citizen” led Indiana State Police detectives to find Anderson in California. The U.S. Marshals Services arrested Anderson as she tried to board a train, state police say.
“Detectives from the Sellersburg post are currently enroute to California to continue the investigation,” said a state police news release issued Friday afternoon.
Indiana online court records did not show a case for Anderson on Friday afternoon.
Indiana State Police in May 2022 shared the coroner’s report on Jordan: “Death in this male child of unknown age is attributed to electrolyte imbalance. This is most likely secondary to a viral gastroenteritis. Blood toxicology studies are negative. There are no significant injuries.”
Another woman, Dawn Coleman, 40, of Shreveport, Louisiana, was arrested in California in October 2022 for her role in the boy’s death. Coleman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder resulting in death in November 2023 in Washington Circuit Court in Salemn. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison.