WASHINGTON COUNTY, INDIANA, Ind. — A jury set to decide the fate of a woman charged in the death of a boy whose body was found in a suitcase in southern Indiana will be pulled from outside Washington County, court documents obtained by 13News revealed.
Dawn Coleman, 40, of Louisiana, is charged with aiding, inducing or causing murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death, and obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors say Coleman helped 37-year-old DeJaune Ludie Anderson, of Atlanta, dispose of the body of Anderson's 5-year-old son, Cairo Jordan, in April 2022.
Her attorneys requested a change of venue in mid-May, and argued she wouldn't receive a fair trial in Washington County due to public hostility against her, public outrage over the offense and news coverage.
In March, the court ruled it would not be throwing out the case against Coleman after her lawyer filed a motion to dismiss the case against her.
According to court documents, Coleman previously claimed the boy's mother talked about her son being possessed as they got into the car and then drove to Indiana to dump the suitcase.
Coleman allegedly told investigators that she carried the suitcase into the woods and left it.
Anderson and Coleman's phones were pinged in Pekin, Indiana – not far from where Cairo's body was found. Additionally, surveillance video from a property owner shows Anderson's car stop on the road where the suitcase was found.
Police said Coleman's Facebook page showed her with the same suitcase that the boy's body was found in.
Court documents allege Anderson's Facebook page had pictures of Cairo, and the images matched the autopsy photos of the boy. She also allegedly posted about needing to do an exorcism on her son to remove a "very powerful demonic force." She also allegedly made a post about telling her story in a book or podcast about living with a demonic child.
On the same day the suitcase was discovered, video allegedly shows Anderson's car driving across the bridge from Indiana to Louisville.
Coleman's jury trial is scheduled for Oct. 3, 2023.