Child’s body found in duffel bag identified as 4-year-old Damari Carter: ‘I’ll never get to see him grow up’

Philadelphia Police identified a small child’s body found in a duffel bag in West Philadelphia as that of 4-year-old Damari Carter, who they say was beaten to death by his mother and her boyfriend before the two discarded his remains in a trash bag late last year.

A worker came across a black Puma bag while cleaning out the alleyway behind the 600 block of North 38th Street in the Mantua section of the city on March 18. Prompted by the smell emanating from the bag, the worker looked inside to find the decomposed remains of a small child, police said.

The body had been left abandoned for so long that police were unable to immediately determine the child’s age, gender, and identity. The corpse was eventually identified through DNA testing, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.

Damari’s family has been grieving since he went missing in December. The family’s only comfort now, Damari’s aunt Nakia Bailey said Wednesday, was that the family could finally lay their little boy to rest.

“I’m just glad that his remains were found,” Nakia Bailey said in an interview. “Because that was sitting not so well with any of the family, us not knowing where he was. We’re still trying to wrap our heads around this situation happening at all.”

Damari’s mother, Dominique Bailey, and her boyfriend, Kevin Spencer, have been charged with murder, abuse of corpse, and related crimes.

Damari’s remains were found less than half a mile south of where he lived with his mother and Spencer. Damari’s mother initially 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 and his eyes were blackened and his forehead was swollen on Dec. 7.

Bailey told police Spencer had beaten her son before, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest. She said that after her son was brutalized that day, she and Spencer left to go buy Black & Mild Cigars, and when they returned home, Damari was unresponsive. 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.

After realizing that the child was dead, Bailey told police, she and Spencer placed the boy’s remains in a trash bag and disposed of them.

Spencer and Bailey never told investigators where they put the corpse, police said. In early January, officials spent days searching the area for the child’s body, using large machinery to comb through Dumpsters and hidden alleyways across West Philadelphia, but had no success.

Police initially believed that Damari’s body had been lost in the city’s trash system, never to be found.

Nakia Bailey said she wrestles with her role as a sister, and as a second mother to Damari. She can’t understand what happened to her sister that would have led to such a heinous act.

“Innocence lost for what?” said Bailey, fighting back tears. “I’ll never get to see him grow up. It’s devastating.”