Sema'j Crosby Update: 4 Women Still Not Cooperating With Police

JOLIET, IL — Will County Sheriff's Detective R.J. Austin wants people to know that four women who may know about the details and circumstances of baby Sema'j Crosby's death have cut off communication with investigators. Last week, Austin participated in a question-and-answer session with the Justice for Semaj Action Team. The event took place at St. John Missionary Baptist Church.

A video of Austin's candid discussion with the concerned audience was posted on Facebook. Back in April, Sema'j was playing with six to eight other children, at least one of whom was as old as 13, when she was last seen about 4 p.m. The children were supposed to go get ice cream, but Sema'j’s mother, Sheri Gordon, couldn’t get her car started, police said.

The children then went to play in the yard, and Sema'j was not seen again until her body was found. In late April, sheriff's officials said, there were more than 10 people not related to Gordon or her three children living in her Preston Heights home, people sheriff's officials identified as "squatters."

Here are some of the key points from Austin's Q&A at the church:

"This is not like some random gang shooting. There were four women at that house the day that Sema'j went missing, four grown women," Austin said. "One, if not more, of those four grown women know exactly what happened to Sema'j and how she got under that couch. I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that she did not get under that couch by herself."

As of now, all four women have attorneys, Austin told his audience.

"According to the media, everybody is cooperating with the police," he said. "I can tell you that absolutely for sure that is not the case. Everybody, all four women, have had attorneys. We cannot talk to them without going through their attorneys. However, there are things in the works with those attorneys that we may have to shed some light on."

When the audience asked Austin if he could reveal the identities of the four women who are choosing not to cooperate with investigators, he did. He identified them as Sheri Gordon; Darlene Crosby, who is Sema'j's grandmother; Lakerisha Crosby, Sema'j's aunt; and Tamika Robinson, a friend of Darlene Crosby.

"Unfortunately, this is a very, very, very, sensitive case. However, that being said, there are four women out there," Austin said. "Somebody knows what happened ... I want justice for Sema'j. I want justice. I want closure. I want for one of them four grown women to come up to me, whether it was an accident or whether it may be a crime they tried to hush."

Austin was asked whether Sema'j was placed under the couch while she was still alive.

"They cannot with any amount of certainty, that's 100 percent certainty, say that Sema'j was placed under the couch, pre-or-post-mortem," Austin replied. "The coroner's office has not ruled the cause of death yet. The toxicology has not come back on Sema'j yet. The reason why I believe that it is taking so long is that cases like this, you've got to make it right ... When you rush, that's when accidents happen ... But we are at the point where nothing we can say or do will bring Sema'j Crosby back. Believe me, nobody wants to get this case solved and get somebody in the jail and be accountable for their actions than I do."

On whether authorities for Will County have forensic or physical evidence given that the house in Preston Heights was later burned to the ground, he said:

"The house has burned down so any evidence that would have been left there is gone. However, we searched the house whenever we found Baby Sema'j and we took the couch out. Our CSI team did a complete forensic analysis of the house."

On why no one found the child's body inside the home during the initial search, he said:

"The sheriff's deputies that were originally on the scene searched the house ... However, nobody I have spoken to since that night tells me that they flipped that couch and looking at that couch, ladies and gentlemen, that couch was at a flat back ... very close to the ground. Actually it was three inches off the ground."

And on the initial investigation:

"We treated this as she wandered away or unfortunately somebody snatched her. That house was never really in play ... It was only until we exhausted every resource we probably had ... we said time out. There was no reports that the sheriff's department got, that I got ... that put that baby in the house. Everybody was outside the house dancing and listening to music."

File image via Patch