Cleveland Mother Charged in Deaths of Two Girls Found in Suitcases
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On March 2, 2026, a man walking his dog in a field in the South Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, made a grisly discovery when his dog began pulling on the leash in the direction of Saranac Playground.
There, near a fence close to Ginn Academy, the man noticed something partially buried sticking up out of the ground. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a suitcase containing the body of a child.
Police were quick to arrive at the scene and soon discovered a second suitcase, also containing a child’s body, around 25 ft away from the first.
Police checked local missing children’s records, but none matched the descriptions of the victims.
The shallow graves where the children's bodies were found have since been filled with stuffed animals and candles by members of the community. A vigil was held near the field at E. 162nd St. and Midland Avenue, organized by Black on Black Crime Inc. and Black Women Army.
Maosha Vales of Black Women Army told ABC5 News Cleveland:
“There’s no one here to honor them. We don’t know who they are. We don’t know their background. We just know they’re beautiful little girls that deserve to be honored.”
The girls were soon identified through DNA as 10-year-old Amor Wilson and her half-sister, 8-year-old Mila Chatman.
After investigating the murders, police obtained a search warrant for the residence of the girl’s mother, 28-year-old Aliyah Henderson, on East 162nd Street and Midland Avenue. Once inside, they found another child alive.
The child found inside the home, described as being in good health, was taken into the care of Cuyahoga County child welfare services.
The residence was located near the site where the suitcases were found.
Henderson was arrested on March 4, 2026, and charged with two counts of aggravated murder. She was booked into the Cuyahoga County Jail that day.
It is unclear how long the suitcases had remained partially buried in the field; however, Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd said they had been buried for some time before being discovered.
ABC5 Cleveland reported that a neighbor of Henderson, Dashay Crider, who is also a mother who lived in the same duplex as Henderson and the children, said she had not seen Henderson's children for over a year, saying:
“She never let her kids come outside to play.”
“Nobody, none of the kids engaged with those kids.”
According to the outlet, Crider had noticed signs of mental health issues in Henderson and had become “concerned” over Henderson's behavior.
Mila’s father, DeShaun Chatman, told ABC13 News that he had been trying to get emergency custody of his daughter for the last several years but was not able to locate Aliyah Henderson despite contacting courts and child welfare agencies multiple times.
DeShaun Chatman said he last saw Mila in 2020 when she was just three years old.
He described learning about his daughter’s death as “very much horrible,” adding:
“I feel useless. I couldn’t save my baby.”
He explained that when he told Henderson that he would take the child when she was feeling stressed she declined.
He felt she used him for child support but was otherwise ignored and “iced out.”
Chatman described Mila as a happy child who loved pink and believed she was a princess. "She was a kid's kid," he said.
He said that the other child’s father had been treated the same way when he too tried to gain custody of his daughter, saying:
“We both was in a position where we couldn’t get her because she (Henderson) always left.”
At the time of writing, the manner of the girls’ deaths has not been publicly released.
Cleveland.com recently reported that the girls had been featured in an article about the Rainbow Connects program at UH Rainbow Center for Women and Children in March of 2019. The image featured Aliyah Henderson holding Amor on her lap, as well as Henderson's mother, Lei Branic, holding Mila.
The Rainbow Connects program helped with the basic needs of families with children.
The girls were just 2 and 3 years old at the time the picture was taken.
On March 6, 2026, Aliyah Henderson appeared in Cleveland Municipal Court, and her bond was set at $2 million; $1 million for each murder. Media outlets report that Henderson does not have a prior criminal record.
Those following the case question how long the children had been unaccounted for before their remains were discovered and whether or not they were enrolled in a local school. These details have yet to be released publicly by police as the investigation is still ongoing.
Cleveland19 reports that Senate Bill 174 (SB174), introduced in 2025, gives judges more discretion in custody cases while focusing on the best interests of the child. The bill ensures that one parent cannot be preferred over the other based on gender or financial status; a mother will not automatically be favored over a father.
However, the bill has received criticism because equal time and equal rights are not guaranteed, and decisions can be based on a judge’s discretion without a uniform standard across the state, among other concerns.