Girl, 5, whose body was hidden in concrete identified nearly 35 years after death

A five-year-old girl whose body was found encased in concrete and left in the woods has been identified nearly 35 years later, US authorities have said.

'Baby Jane Doe' who was found dead in December 1988 in Ware County has been identified as Kenyatta Odom after receiving a crucial tip earlier this year.

Around the case's 34th anniversary in December, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's (GBI) made a public appeal for information.

A woman called investigators in January recalling there had been a child who had gone missing and that her mother said that the child had gone to live with her father, a story she had never believed.

Kenyatta was killed in her hometown of Albany, Georgia, before her body was dumped 110 miles away outside the small city of Waycross.

She was discovered among broken furniture left in the woods, by a man who stumbled upon a TV cabinet filled with concrete.

The girl's mother, 56-year-old Evelyn Odom, and Ulyster Sanders, her boyfriend at the time of the child's death, were arrested and charged with murder on Thursday.

News outlets reported the indictment said the child died after her feet and legs were submerged in hot water.

Sheriff Carl James was one of the department's detectives at the time and was dispatched to the scene that day.

“Upon my arrival, I really was not prepared for what we were about to find,” James told reporters.

District Attorney Greg Edwards of the Albany-based Dougherty Judicial Circuit added: "We believe that there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that will lead to justice being found for Kenyatta."

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