Police do not believe they will find 4-year-old Damari Carter’s body

Investigators do not believe they will recover the body of 4-year-old Damari Carter, who police say was fatally beaten by his mother and her boyfriend, who then discarded his body in the trash over a month ago, according to law enforcement sources.

Prosecutors say the boy’s mother, Dominique Bailey, and her boyfriend, Kevin Spencer, beat the toddler inside their West Philadelphia apartment during the first week of December. The child, covered in bruises and with a swollen forehead, died Dec. 8, Bailey told police according to arrest records.

Spencer then placed his remains in a trash bag, and disposed of them in an unknown area, the records say. Spencer and Bailey have not told police where his remains were left, and police have used large machinery to comb through dumpsters and hidden alleyways across West Philadelphia, without success.

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

Since more than a month has passed since the child’s death, investigators believe his remains were likely swept up in the city’s waste system, taken to an incineration plant in Chester or to a distant landfill, said three sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Given the volume of waste taken to landfills each day, it would be nearly impossible to recover his body there, the sources said.

It’s the latest development in a tragedy that initially mystified the boy’s family and detectives — Bailey initially told Damari’s relatives and police that the child was fatally struck by a car. Family members, suspicious of the story and unable to find any record of his death at local hospitals or in news reports, then reached out to a TV news reporter for help. The reporter, a former crime scene investigator for Philadelphia police, then alerted detectives, who uncovered a far worse truth: the child was dead, his body likely lost.

Here’s what we know about the crime and how the investigation developed based on police records:

Bailey, 30, and Damari moved from Texas to Philadelphia in 2023 to live with Bailey’s father in West Philadelphia, according to police records. She worked as a security guard at the University of Pennsylvania. After an argument with her dad in late November, Bailey and Damari left and moved in with Spencer, whom she met over Facebook.

Spencer, 30, is Bailey’s boyfriend and lived in an apartment on the 3800 block of Reno Street, police said.

Damari’s relatives, most of whom live in Texas and South Carolina, grew concerned after they had not seen the child since his birthday in late November. When they reached out to Bailey, records show, she told them Damari had been hit by a car and died, and that his body was at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

The relatives, including the boy’s father in Texas, were confused. They called the hospital and searched online for news reports of his death without success. After Bailey stopped responding to them, they started posting online that the child was missing, asking for help finding him. In late December, the family reached out to 6abc for help. A reporter who is a former police officer spoke with them, then sent information to a detective who found no recent record of a child who had been struck and killed by a car.

On Jan. 3, detectives met with Bailey at work. She told them she and Damari were walking to the Dollar Store on Dec. 9 when his toy fell into the road. When he went to retrieve it, she said, he was struck by a car. She said medics took him to the hospital, where he died.

Bailey’s story shifted through multiple police interviews, and eventually, she told investigators Spencer had beaten Damari.

Investigators recovered videos and photos in Spencer’s phone that showed Damari covered in bruises, his eyes blackened and head swollen on the morning of Dec. 7. Bailey said she had seen Spencer had beaten her son before, including on that day. She said she and Spencer left that evening 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.

Her son had died, she told police. She said Spencer then placed his small body in a trash can next to the television, and carried the bag outside. She told police she is not sure where he put the child’s body.

Police have searched in dumpsters and facilities throughout West Philadelphia without success.

Bailey and Spencer have been charged with murder in connection with the child’s death.

Bailey’s relatives are devastated. Her sister, Nakia Bailey, said she was overwhelmed with grief and declined to speak Tuesday. She previously told 6abc that she already cares for Bailey’s 6-year-old child, and questioned why her sister, if unable to care for Damari, would not have given him to relatives who loved him.

She said Damari was an innocent boy who did not deserve to die and the family just wants to know where he is so they can give him a proper burial.

“What happened to him was senseless. I’m heartbroken,” she told the news station. “We still haven’t had peace. We don’t know where he is and it’s all because of my sister.”