Remains of Four-Year-Old Boy, Missing Since 2023, Found by Sanitation Workers Inside of a Discarded Duffel Bag.

The family of four-year-old Damari Cooper now have the answers they've been seeking surrounding his disappearance. Nearly all of Cooper's family had been looking for him since he vanished without a trace in December 2023. The one person who wasn't looking? The child's mother.

The boy's mother had told family members that he'd been hit by a car and killed. It is presumed that she was pressed for more details surrounding his death, and where his little body had been laid to rest, but she gave no answers.

Family members were concerned for the child and grew increasingly suspicious of her story and went to the authorities. Officers brought the mother, 28-year-old Dominique Bailey, in for questioning, who then “provided information on her involvement in the child’s death.”

Authorities were still unable to find the child's body until March 18, 2024 when they received a call from city sanitation workers. Startled workers contacted the police to inform then that they'd found a child’s decomposed body stuffed in a duffel bag at 38th Street and Haverford Avenue.

Police went to the home Cooper shared with his mother and said they found evidence that led them to believe the child was killed inside the home.

After additional investigating, detectives brought Bailey’s 30-year-old boyfriend, Kevin Spencer, in for questioning as well. Once he'd been questioned, and the couple's stories compared, the two were charged with murder, abuse of corpse, and related offenses.

Sources said clothing on the child’s body matched what Damari was last seen wearing on Dec. 30, and they were able to positively identify the 4-year-old through DNA.