The Cleveland Police Department charged Aliyah Henderson with two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the deaths of two girls whose remains were found in shallow graves inside suitcases, authorities said on Thursday.
Police said Mila Chatman and Amor Wilson were recovered after a dog walker led investigators to the suitcases four days earlier. Sgt. Wilfredo Diaz said police detained Henderson on Wednesday evening after detectives completed initial interviews and examined evidence. Authorities also said a child, described as being in good health, was located inside a home during the investigation and was placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.
Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd told reporters earlier this week that police were seeking answers and called the situation “a terrible, tragic situation.” Police said the suitcases were found in the field near Ginn Academy in Cleveland’s South Collinwood neighborhood, about 25 feet (8 meters) apart.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the girls’ names late Thursday and said DNA relationship testing helped identify them. The office said Mila would have been 8 years old and her half-sister Amor 10.
In statements on Thursday, DeShaun Chatman, Mila’s father, said he had been looking for his daughter and had been pursuing custody for five years before investigators told him late Wednesday she was dead. Chatman said he repeatedly sought emergency custody and tried to locate Mila through a child welfare agency, but that those efforts were unsuccessful because he did not know where the family was living.
Chatman said he and Henderson were not married but lived together for about a year after Mila was born, and that he last saw Mila in 2020, when she was 3 years old. He described Mila as “happy-go-lucky, always smiling,” saying her favorite color was pink and that she “swore that she was a princess.”
Chatman said authorities had not told him how the girls died. He said he felt “useless — I couldn’t save my baby,” adding that it turned out Mila had been living within view of where the bodies were found.