WARE COUNTY, Ga. – Nearly 35 years after a 5-year-old’s remains were found dumped in a trash pile in a rural area of Ware County, “Baby Jane Doe” has her name back.
Authorities said Kenyatta Odom died sometime in 1988 at the hands of her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. Her remains were found on Dec. 21, 1988, when road workers discovered a container inside an old television cabinet. Her body was found wrapped up in a blanket, inside of a duffel bag encased in concrete just off Duncan Bridge Road.
“Baby Jane Doe is no longer unnamed, is no longer unknown. The baby that was thrown out into a trash pile has been identified and we’re working to bring justice to her. Kenyatta Odom that’s the name we want out there, ‘Keke,’” Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jason Seacrist said at a Monday news conference.
Now the girl’s mother, Evelyn Odom, aka Zmecca Luciana, and her live-in boyfriend at the time, Ulyster Sanders, have been indicted on charges of felony murder, first-degree child cruelty, aggravated battery-family violence, conspiracy to conceal a death and concealing a death. The grand jury indictment from September was filed on Nov. 1, but authorities were investigating Odom and Sanders as far back as this summer. They were both arrested on Nov. 9.
Typically, child cruelty and aggravated battery have a four-year statute of limitations in Georgia, and concealing a death and conspiracy to conceal a death have a two-year statute of limitations. But the indictment explains that, per Georgia Code, those statutes were “tolled” -- or stopped running -- because the person who committed the crimes was unknown. There is no statute of limitations on murder.
Editor’s Note: The following details of the indictment against Odom and Sanders are disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.
The indictment indicates that Kenyatta lived in a home with Odom and Sanders in Albany, Georgia, and that’s where she died.
According to the indictment, Odom and Sanders submerged Kenyatta in hot water, seriously disfiguring her legs and feet, which caused her death. They then conspired to cover up her death by encasing her body in concrete and putting her in the large television console that was dumped in the woods in Ware County, about two hours east of Albany, investigators said.
“She was definitely placed in this area hoping not to be found,” Seacrist said last year when a $5,000 reward was announced for information leading to Kenyatta’s identity. “We know that from the container she was in.”
Investigators were left to try to solve the case -- and identify the girl -- for nearly 35 years.
Last year, on the 34th anniversary of her discovery, Seacrist said the GBI had been utilizing advanced DNA testing for two years in hopes of finding “Baby Jane Doe’s” relatives.
RELATED: GBI: 65-year-old cold case ID of little boy ‘gives us hope’ for Ware County ‘Baby Jane Doe’
GBI said that a month after News4JAX published a story about “Baby Jane Doe,” the agency got a call from a woman with information about the case. She was not identified on Monday.
“She had heard the story of ‘Baby Jane Doe’ and she believes she may know who this little girl may be,” Seacrist said on Monday. “She knew that there had been a child that had gone missing and that her mother said that the child had gone to live with her father. This person never really believed that story.”
GBI then started investigating that lead, and using DNA testing, made a family connection and identified the child.
Investigators had previously said that it was believed the girl died two to three months before she was found in what was used as an illegal dumping site at the time.
Seacrist said even though GBI was the lead agency in this investigation, it’s been a true partnership with the Ware County Sheriff’s Office since day one. He went on to say the original detectives in the case never forgot this child’s story and still hoped for answers.
One of those original detectives was Carl James, now the sheriff of Ware County. James and his detective partner responded to a death investigation call on that afternoon in 1988.
“Upon my arrival, I was really not prepared for what we were about to find,” James said. “That is the body of a little girl who we now know as Kenyatta Odom had been discovered in a wooded area a short distance from the roadway. From that time forward, hundreds of leads and tips have been investigated and followed up by the sheriff’s office and the GBI. It is because of the diligence of the many criminal investigators, forensic specialists, prosecutors, and others over the years that were able to be here today with this case, having come to a successful conclusion.”
Seacrist confirmed to News4JAX that a generous person in the community, who wished to remain anonymous, had put up a $5,000 reward for information to help identify Baby Jane Doe.
WATCH: GBI Special Agent in Charge Jason Seacrist discusses solving ‘Baby Jane Doe’ cold case
