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An Ohio mother was charged Thursday with aggravated murder after the bodies of her two young daughters were found buried in separate suitcases in shallow graves in Cleveland earlier this week, officials said.
Aliyah Henderson, 28, was charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Mila Chatman and Amor Wilson, police told Digital.
The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the girls’ names and said DNA relationship testing helped identify them. Mila was 8 years old and her half-sister, Amor, was 10, the office said.
The medical examiner’s office has not released a cause of death.
Nichelle Wilson, left, the grandmother of one of the girls whose bodies were found earlier this week, Amor Wilson, stands with her friend Sharon Hunter, right, at the site where a memorial is now, in Cleveland, Thursday, March 5, 2026 (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki))
The girls were discovered Monday evening after a man walking his dog near East 162nd Street and Midland Avenue, in a field near Ginn Academy, found a partially buried suitcase and called police.
Officers responded and located a shallow grave containing a deceased individual inside a suitcase. After canvassing the area, police found a second shallow grave and another suitcase containing a second body.
Mila’s father, DeShaun Chatman, said in an interview with The Associated Press that investigators told him late Wednesday that his daughter was dead.
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Mila Chatman, 8, was identified by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office after her body was found buried in a suitcase in Cleveland earlier this week. (DeShaun Chatman via AP)
Chatman said he had been pursuing custody of his daughter for five years and had sought emergency custody several times. He said he had not seen Mila since 2020, when she was 3 years old.
He also said he tried locating Mila through a child welfare agency but was unable to because he did not know where she was living.
“It’s very much horrible,” Chatman told the outlet.
People visit a memorial at the site where two girls bodies were found earlier this week, in Cleveland, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
He said Mila had ultimately been living near where the bodies were found, adding that he felt “useless — I couldn’t save my baby.”
“Mila was happy-go-lucky, always smiling,” Chatman said. “Favorite color was pink — she swore that she was a princess. She was always happy. She was a kid’s kid.”
Law enforcement officials said they detained Henderson on Wednesday evening. Another child was found seemingly in good health inside a house authorities searched and was placed in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services, officials said.
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Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd said during a news conference earlier this week that the discovery was a “terrible, horrific situation.”
“This is a traumatic event for our officers, for the community,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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