An almost 35-year-old girl who was discovered in a barrel in a forested location has been positively recognized by state law enforcement officers. She was 5 years old.
As per the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), the Ware County Sheriff’s Office asked for help in a death investigation on December 21, 1988, following the discovery of a young girl’s body “in a container encased in concrete.” Her cause of death was unknown at the time, but the medical examiner concluded that she had been murdered.
The remains were located by a truck driver, according to a news release from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. They were wrapped in a brown blanket and “concealed inside a duffel bag that was placed inside a TV console cabinet.” Also discovered by investigators was an Albany, Georgia, newspaper. The body was found at an unlawful dump site, according to GBI Special Agent Jason Seacrist during a press briefing on Monday, Nov. 13.
Decades-Long Mystery Solved: Identification and Arrests Made in Case of Ware County Jane Doe Found in TV Cabinet
According to Seacrist, “She was trapped within an old TV cabinet, covered with a blanket inside of a duffel bag inside of a trunk that had been sealed in concrete.”
To definitively identify the young woman, who came to be known as Ware County Jane Doe, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation revived the case in 2019 and used genome sequencing. The GBI and Othram Inc. collaborated to compile the child’s genealogy profile. She was allegedly discovered with a diaper, white thermal pants with a maroon bottom, and a white pajama top with a horse emblem on it.
Potential family ties were discovered in Albany by officials. But the case took a significant turn in December 2022 when an informant contacted law officials, confirming the girl’s identify as Kenyatta “Keke” Odom. When she passed away in Albany, she was 5 years old.
Agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation made the case known to the grand jury on November 1. On November 9, detectives detained Evelyn Odom, 56, also known as Zmecca Luciana, Keke’s mother, and Ulyster Sanders, 61, Odom’s ex-boyfriend, on suspicion of felony murder, first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated battery, family violence, concealing the death of another individual, and conspiracy to conceal the death of another individual.
Sanders and Odom allegedly submerged Keke in boiling water, badly injuring her legs and feet before she passed away, according to the indictment that WJXT-TV cited. At the press conference, Seacrist declared, “Baby Jane Doe is no longer unnamed.”