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On Jan. 7, six-year-old Damari Perry’s mother, older brother and an unidentified sibling were arrested in connection to the little boy’s death.
According to NBC News, Jeremiah, 20, and Jannie Perry, 38, were taken into custody in Lake County, Illinois. Jeremiah was charged with aggravated battery of a child, concealing murder and obstruction. Jannie was charged with obstruction of justice, concealing a homicide and first-degree murder.
The other sibling, who is underage, was also charged, but the information has been suppressed. They were apprehended in Indiana.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Indiana State Police and North Chicago Police, are involved in the tragic case because of a two-state involvement.
On Jan. 5, Jannie and Jeremiah reported Damari missing, and family members confirmed seeing the little boy last on Jan. 4.
The news outlet reported that Damari and his 16-year-old sister allegedly went to a party in Skokie, and the teen fell asleep after drinking alcohol. She claimed she woke up to find Damari and an unidentified man missing.
Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart admitted that authorities were bogus, and the doubt triggered an investigation.
Family interviews with undisclosed evidence led investigators to focus on Jannie, Jeremiah and his sister.
Damari’s body was found in an alley near an abandoned home on Saturday.
The North Chicago’s body had been wrapped in a garbage bag. Coroner Zhou Wang revealed that Damari died from hypothermia. Wang also disclosed that Damari’s internal organs were partially frozen and that his body was partly-burned– post mortem.
The autopsy detailed there was “scattered ecchymosis on the right leg, extremely cold core temperature, and partially frozen internal organs,” the coroner’s office said.
“Our hearts ache over the murder of 6-year-old Damari Perry,” Rinehart said in a statement.
In 2014, the mother of seven reportedly lost custody of her children for three years. According to DCFS spokesman Bill McCaffrey, a domestic violence investigation forced the agency to remove four children from the home.
When Jannie had a fifth child in the same year, that baby was also removed from her care. Damari was born in December 2015. He was also put into foster care. In 2017, Jannie gave birth again to a seventh baby and the infant was also removed from the home.
In the same year, a judge ordered them to be returned to Jannie.
The pair are still in jail, while the juvenile suspect is in custody at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Jannie’s bail was set at $5 million, and Jeremiah’s was set at $3 million.