‘Baby Jane Doe’ identified as 5-year-old Georgia girl after nearly 35 years

WARE COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has announced an arrest in one of the state’s oldest cold cases.

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The body of a small child was found wrapped in a baby blanket, placed in a gym bag inside a cement-filled suitcase, which was then hidden in a TV console cabinet in Ware County in 1988.

“Finally after almost 35 years not only were we able to identify Baby Jane Doe, but we are able to make an arrest for those responsible for her death,” agents said at a news conference Monday.

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The GBI said they’ve identified the child as Kenyatta “Keke” Odom, who was 5 when she died.

The child’s mother, Evelyn Odom (aka Zmecca Luciana), 56, of Albany, and her stepfather, Ulyster Sanders, 61, also of Albany, have now been indicted on charges of felony murder, first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated battery, family violence, concealing a death and conspiracy to conceal the death of another person.

The GBI said that when the child’s body was found in 1998, there was evidence tying her to Albany and evidence that she was killed, though her cause of death couldn’t be determined.

In 2019, agents began looking into genome sequencing to identify the child. Investigators were able to tie the remains to a family tree from Albany, but it wasn’t until a tip from a member of the public in 2022 that agents got the break they needed.

The child was identified as Kenyatta in 2023.

Evelyn Odom and Ulyster were arrested on Nov. 9.

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According to the indictment, Odom and Sanders put the child in hot water, seriously disfiguring her legs and feet, which ultimately caused her death. They then conspired to cover up her death by encasing her in concrete and putting her in a TV console that was dumped in the woods about two hours away from their home in Albany.

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SOLVED: Mary Anga Cowan Othram DNA lab in Texas has helped solve dozens of cold cases in recent years. Here are the cases they've helped solve in Georgia. In 1985, a woman was found unconscious on the side of the highway in Albany. She died at the hospital. In 2012, her remains were exhumed and a bone fragment was taken. In March 2022, Othram used DNA to identify her as Mary Anga Cowan, from Florida. (Othram Labs/DNA Solves)

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