A boy’s body in a suitcase and a mother on the run after calling him a ‘demon’. What happened to Cairo Jordan?
Cairo Jordan’s body was found dumped in a suitcase in Indiana in April 2022. It took months to identify him. Then his mother went on the run for nearly two after making disturbing social media posts about demons and exorcisms, reports Rachel Sharp
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Back in April 2022, 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.
Finally, in October of that year, the little boy was given a name: Cairo Jordan, who would have been five when he died.
Investigators announced his mother was 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.
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The mystery body in the suitcase
The harrowing tale began on the evening of 16 April 2022 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 that year, an autopsy revealed that he died from electrolyte imbalance, which was likely caused by viral gastroenteritis – an inflammation of the stomach and intestines that causes vomiting, diarrhea, and ultimately dehydration.
His blood toxicology was negative and there were no significant signs of trauma on his body.
His name is Cairo
Six months on from the grim discovery, Indiana State Police announced 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 after posting disturbing posts on social media about him being a demon.
A second woman, 40-year-old Dawn Elaine Coleman, was also accused of causing the boy’s death.
The two women each faced 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 2022 in San Francisco, police said. She was eventually jailed in November 2023.
Indiana State Police Sgt Carey Huls told The Independent in October 2022 that she Ms Coleman 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 acquaintances who travel together and possibly work together,” he said.
Ms Anderson, from Atlanta, Georgia, remained on the run.
Investigators issued a warrant for her arrest, revealing that she had last been seen in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.
It was not clear when exactly the last sighting was but The Independent learned that troopers were searching the area in October 2022 and believed the mother was still there at that time.
Ms Anderson was eventually arrested in California in March 2024.
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 2022, 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 2022, 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.”
Dejaune Anderson appears in court
Following her arrest in March 2024, Ms Anderson appeared in court to hear the charges against her on 25 April.
Appearing in an orange jumpsuit, she named herself a “Princess” who was representing “the entity of Dejaune Anderson”. She told the judge she was 63-years-old.
State prosecutors asked that the court raise Ms Anderson’s bond to a level that she would be unable to pay, as she had been a fugitive.
She objected to this, however.
"I’ve been under NSA surveillance for the past eight months and how can that qualify me as a fugitive on the run when I’ve also had a detail from Space Force that was following my every move?" Anderson told Washington County Circuit Judge Larry Medlock, who quickly cut her off, stating these claims were not valid objections.
She asked to represent herself, stating that she was not seeking an attorney.
Ms Anderson was remanded back into custody after hearing her charges, with a pre-trial conference set for 20 June.
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 2022.
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 showed that Ms Anderson was the owner and CEO of Ashley Logistics Corporation in Georgia. The records showed Cairo as the company secretary.
Crime spree
It 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 2022, she was 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 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 in October 2022.
“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.”