Dominique Bailey (center) and Kevin Spencer (right) murdered 4-year-old Damari Carter, police said. (Images of the defendants: Philadelphia Police Department; image of Carter: Association for Intellectually Disabled Black, Indigenous and People Oppressed by Color)
A Pennsylvania woman and her boyfriend are accused of killing her missing 4-year-old son, then allegedly lying to relatives that the child was fatally struck and killed by a car.
Dominique Bailey, 28, faces charges including murder, endangering the welfare of a child, false report, and abuse of a corpse in the death of Damari Carter, 4. Bailey’s boyfriend, Kevin Spencer, 30, is also charged in connection with the boy’s death.
Officers in the city of Philadelphia did not publicly suggest a cause of death — they have yet to even find his body — but sources speaking to local ABC affiliate WPVI say investigators believe that the child was fatally beaten.
“What happened to him was senseless,” Nakia Bailey, the child’s aunt, told the outlet. ” I’m heartbroken. We still haven’t had peace. We don’t know where he is and it’s all because of my sister.”
Damari was reportedly last seen on Nov. 25.
Relatives approached WPVI about Damari’s disappearance, hoping to get the word out.
“I just knew,” Damari’s cousin, Aiyana Parrish, reportedly said. “He’s blood, so I gotta do whatever it takes to make sure my family is OK.”
WPVI followed up on this and relayed the matter to cops.
“The Special Victims Unit (SVU) initiated an investigation on December 30, 2023, following information received from a media outlet regarding a missing child in the West Philadelphia area,” Philadelphia police wrote in a statement emailed to Law&Crime. “Despite no prior reports of the missing child, SVU investigators commenced a thorough inquiry.”
Relatives described learning that Dominique Bailey claimed a car fatally struck the boy. The assigned investigator found no evidence of this purported crash happening, police said.
Officers described bringing Bailey in for questioning on Thursday and later arresting Spencer amid the subsequent execution of a search warrant at an address in the 3800 block of Reno St.
Without elaborating, police said Bailey gave information about being involved in her son’s death.
“However, the location of the child’s body remains undetermined,” cops said.
In addition to Bailey’s charges, Spencer is charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, endangering the welfare of a child, false report, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse.
“Everybody was just holding out hope that he was going to be found OK, just like a bump or a bruise or something like that, that she [Bailey] didn’t want to get in trouble for,” Parrish said.
“It didn’t have to happen,” Nakia Bailey reportedly said. “That baby was wanted. If not by her, by everyone else. His father wanted him.”
Damari’s father, Darryle Carter Jr., told Philadelphia local newspaper Metro in a Sunday report that he was told of the supposed crash between Christmas and New Year’s Day. He called the local medical examiner’s offices, but they did not have any record of Damari.
Carter Jr. said he lived with Dominique Bailey in Killeen, Texas, before divorcing. He claimed she absconded with their son to Philadelphia after an April 2023 meeting at a park. He filed a missing-person report, he said.
“I got nothing but good memories of my son, and it’s sad that he had to go through that,” he reportedly said. “He didn’t deserve that. He was an angel. He was like a mini version of me.”
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