‘Otherwise healthy’: Attorney for mom charged in death of 5-year-old found stuffed in suitcase claims there’s no evidence of murder

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Court TV) — The attorney for a woman charged with killing her son, who was found stuffed inside a suitcase tossed in the woods, told a judge Friday that there’s no evidence the child was murdered.

Dejaune Anderson, 40, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of her 5-year-old son, Cairo Ammar Jordan.

Cairo’s body was inside a suitcase found by a mushroom hunter in April 2022 in a wooded area of Indiana, about 35 miles from Louisville, Ky. Anderson was wanted in the case for two years before authorities arrested her in California.

“At this time, I am asking the court to release Ms. Anderson,” her defense attorney, Que Christian, said at a bond hearing on Friday. Christian asked Judge Eric Haner to consider reducing the bond, currently set at $500,000, to house arrest or any lower monetary amount.

Christian said that the circumstances of the case don’t merit a murder charge, because the medical examiner who performed Cairo’s autopsy in Indiana ruled that his manner of death was undetermined. “Manner is usually where we see homicide, or accident or suicide,” Christian said. “A lot of the reason why I finally make this push on bond argument is because it does not sound like the medical doctor can say that somebody did something to cause this child’s death. He is free from injuries. The toxicology came back with nothing, so nothing was given to him. Nothing was done to hurt him. There was food in his stomach. He was overall, otherwise healthy.” Christian said the only abnormality the medical examiner found during the examination was an electrolyte imbalance.

“The child in this case was found in a wooded area over in Indiana in 2022,” prosecutor Chris Foster said. “He was found inside a plastic bag folded up inside of a suitcase. If this child had been sick, Ms. Anderson certainly didn’t act like it.”

Both Foster and Christian appeared to agree that the electrolyte imbalance could have signaled the child was sick, but Christian maintained that the evidence found with the child suggested he was well cared for: “The bag that he was in was clean. The suitcase was clean. The child was clean.”

In an affidavit of probable cause, investigators said they found fingerprints on the black plastic bags that matched both Anderson and her co-defendant, Dawn Coleman.

Christian asked Haner to disregard statements Coleman made to investigators in Indiana alleging that Anderson smothered the child, arguing that there are questions about Coleman’s competency and reliability as a witness that need to be resolved first. “The co-defendant, in her interviews, talked about believing that the child was possessed, saying there was something about him that scared her to the police,” Christian said, adding that Coleman had claimed she was “casting spells to keep Ms. Anderson in jail.”

Foster said investigators believe Cairo was smothered and that prosecutors expect a report from a local medical examiner that supports their theory. Foster added that the Commonwealth believes the child was killed in Kentucky before his body was left in Indiana, so the case was transferred.

After her arrival in Kentucky, Anderson was ordered to undergo a competency evaluation after telling a judge during a first appearance that she had “been under NSA surveillance” for eight months and that she was being followed by members of the Space Force.

Haner refused to lower Anderson’s bond. “I think that she presents a very significant flight risk, for sure,” he said, noting a long criminal history that included grand larceny, battery and aggravated assault.

Coleman previously pleaded guilty in Indiana to aiding, inducing or causing murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison with five years suspended to probation.

Haner scheduled Anderson’s next pretrial appearance for Dec. 8.