Former Couple Arrested Almost 35 Years After 5-Year-Old Girl’s Concrete-Encased Body Found

A woman and her former boyfriend were arrested nearly 35 years after the grisly discovery of a child encased in concrete and left in a wooded area in southeast Georgia, officials recently announced.

The child, who investigators called “Baby Jane Doe,” was found on Dec. 21, 1988, amid trash dumped in Millwood, WOWT reported.

According to the station, the girl’s blanket-wrapped body was in a duffle bag in concrete poured into a television cabinet. At the time, investigators believed the victim could have been from Albany, a town located around 2 hours from the dump site, because of a local newspaper found with the remains.

In 2019, DNA and genealogy databases helped confirm the child had relatives in the Albany area, but a tip from a woman in January 2023 helped police finally give the girl a name.

The tipster “knew that there had been a child who had gone missing and that her mother said that the child had gone to live with her father,” Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Jason Seacrist said at a recent news conference covered by The New York Times. “This person never really believed that story.”

As a result, investigators identified the child as Kenyatta “KeKe” Odom. On Nov. 9, police arrested her mother, Evelyn Odom, also known Zmecca Luciana, and the mother’s boyfriend at the time, Ulyster Sanders, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Odom, 56, and Sanders, 61, each face multiple charges in Dougherty County, including felony murder, aggravated battery, first-degree cruelty to children, and concealing a death.

An indictment obtained by First Coast News shows police believe parts of Kenyatta’s body were burned in hot water prior to her death.

Law enforcement officials have not disclosed a possible motive in the case.

“Baby Jane Doe is no longer unnamed, is no longer unknown,” Seacrist said. “The baby that was thrown out into a trash pile has been identified, and we’re working to bring justice to her.”