Child's body found inside duffel bag in Philly could be that of 4-year-old Damari Carter, police say

PHILADELPHIA — Tucked in a small West Philadelphia alleyway, covered by trash and overgrown brush, a duffel bag holding the badly decomposed remains of a toddler was discovered by a sanitation worker on Monday, police said.

The worker came across the black Puma bag just before 10 a.m. while cleaning out the alleyway behind the 600 block of North 38th Street in the Mantua section of the city, police said. Taken aback by the smell, the man looked inside the bag to find a small body — one which had been abandoned for so long that the child’s gender, age, and identity were not immediately clear, according to police.

But the location of the remains and the tender age of the child have led investigators to believe the body could be that of Damari Carter, the 4-year-old who police say was beaten to death by his mother and her boyfriend before his remains were discarded in a trash bag nearly four months ago — but never found.

Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said it could take weeks to learn the child’s identity, but that detectives are looking into whether the body could be Damari’s.

The remains recovered Monday were found less than half a mile south of where Damari lived with his mother, Dominique Bailey, and her boyfriend, Kevin Spencer, before his death. Damari went missing in early December after police said Bailey and Spencer beat the child to death, then discarded his remains.

Damari’s mother originally told relatives her son had been hit by a car and died in the hospital, but after finding discrepancies in her story, police launched an investigation in early January.

Police said Bailey ultimately confessed to watching Spencer beat her child to the point that he fell unconscious, his forehead swollen and eyes blackened on Dec. 7.

Bailey said she had seen Spencer beat her son before, including on that day, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest. She said that after her son was beaten, she and Spencer left to go buy Black & Mild Cigars, and when they returned home, Damari was not responsive. Spencer put him to bed in a wicker chair in the living room, she said, and when she went to kiss him goodnight a few hours later, Damari was cold to the touch.

Damari was dead, Bailey told police, according to the records. She said Spencer then placed the boy’s remains in a trash bag, and disposed of them in an unknown area.

Bailey and Spencer have been charged with murder, abuse of corpse, and related crimes.

But Spencer and Bailey never told investigators where the remains were left, police said. Officials spent days searching the area for the child’s body in early January, using large machinery to comb through dumpsters and hidden alleyways across West Philadelphia, without success. Police came to believe that, since it had been nearly a month since Damari’s death, his body was likely swept up in the city’s trash system and might never be found.

Four months later, police say, the child’s body may have been found, though it could take days or weeks to know for certain.