Photo: Getty Images
A body found in a duffle bag in Pennsylvania has been identified as a four-year-old boy who was missing for months.
According to the Philadelphia Police Department, DNA evidence recently matched 4-year-old Damari to a body that was discovered in a duffle bag on March 18 in a West Philadephia neighborhood, per PEOPLE.
The Puma-branded bag was found by a maintenance worker in an alleyway less than a mile away from where Damari lived with his mother, Dominique Bailey. The body in the bag was so "severely decomposed" that DNA testing was needed for identification.
Damari was initially reported missing on December 30. Family members said they hadn't seen the four-year-old in weeks. His mother initially alleged that her son was killed in a car accident, but police found no record of the incident.
A neighbor of Bailey and her boyfriend, Kevin Spencer, said they "heard Damari screaming" as he was allegedly beaten, according to Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom of the Philadelphia Police Department. Bailey later told investigators Damari died after the beating, and Spencer put his body "in a trashcan." However, the mother declined to disclose the location of the body.
Bailey and Spencer were arrested in January on charges including including murder, endangering the welfare of a child, abuse of a corpse, and conspiracy. The pair have a court date set for June 18.
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