After nearly 35 years, authorities investigating the killing of a small girl found in a dump site, one of Georgia’s oldest unsolved cold cases, have charged the child’s mother and her boyfriend at the time with murder and other offenses, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced in a Monday news conference.
“Baby Jane Doe,” publicly identified Monday as 5-year-old Kenyatta “KeKe” Odom by GBI Special Agent in Charge Jason Seacrist, was found December 21, 1988, by road workers who came across her body concealed in a discarded TV cabinet and encased in concrete at an illegal dumping site in Ware County in southeast Georgia.
“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.”
Seacrist said investigators believe Kenyatta was killed near the southwestern Georgia city of Albany, in Dougherty County.
After decades without breakthroughs in the case, the GBI published a news release in December 2022 asking the public to submit tips. According to Seacrist, a woman contacted investigators the following month and told them she believed she knew who the child was.
She told investigators that she knew of a mother whose child had gone missing. At the time the mother explained that the child went to live with her father, but the woman told investigators she was skeptical.
Investigators looked into the woman’s claim and were able to identify Kenyatta. After the GBI secured a grand jury indictment in Dougherty County on November 1, investigators moved to arrest the child’s mother, Evelyn Odom, and her boyfriend from 1988, Ulyster Sanders Sr., Seacrist said.
Both were arrested Thursday and taken to Dougherty County to face charges, Seacrist said. Odom was arrested in Cook County, Georgia; Seacrist didn’t say where Sanders was arrested.
Odom, 56, and Sanders, 61, have been charged with felony murder, first degree cruelty to children, aggravated battery – family violence, concealing the death of another person, and conspiracy to conceal the death of another person, Seacrist said.
Both are in Dougherty County jail, according to online records, and Odom has a court date set for Tuesday.
“We believe that there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that will lead to justice being found for Kenyatta,” Dougherty County District Attorney Gregory Edwards said at the news conference.
Investigators started looking into DNA sequencing in 2019 and in 2022 found the child had a family connection in Albany, but they had been unable to find any other details, Seacrist said.
Investigators continue to work to identify Kenyatta’s father, whom Seacrist described during the news conference as “a little bit of a secret over the years.”