Dawn Elaine Coleman and Cairo Jordan (Indiana State Police)

A 41-year-old woman from Louisiana has admitted to her role in the death of a 5-year-old boy from southern Indiana who was found abandoned in the woods inside of a suitcase last year. Dawn Elaine Coleman on Friday formally pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the tragic death of young Cairo Jordan, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

According to a report from Louisville, Kentucky, ABC affiliate WHAS, Coleman reached a deal with the Washington County Prosecutor’s Office in which she agreed to plead guilty to the conspiracy charge and to testify against Cairo’s mother, 38-year-old mother Dejuane Ludie Anderson, in any future criminal proceedings relating to Cairo’s death. In exchange for her cooperation, prosecutors dropped additional charges of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, aiding or inducing murder, and obstruction of justice.

Dejuane Ludie Anderson (Indiana State Police)

As previously reported by Law&Crime, a mushroom hunter on April 26, 2022, discovered Cairo’s body in “a very distinctive suitcase” with the words “To Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada” that had been discarded in a heavily wooded area off of Holder Road in South East Washington County.

Police at the time said they had discovered an “approximately a 5-year-old Black male child” dead. He exhibited no apparent signs of trauma, they said. No witnesses, family members, or acquaintances came forward in connection with the dead child, and he didn’t match the description of any child who had been reported missing.

In attempting to identify the child, the department spared no expense and utilized every means available, including using crime scene evidence technologies that required outsourcing to federal agencies and eventually narrowed it down to two suspects, Coleman and Anderson.