By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
A South Side man beat and choked his girlfriend, Laneesha Miller, to death before dismembering her body and placing the pieces in four suitcases, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.
Laneesha Miller | Chicago Police
Paul Meyers then enlisted the help of his older brother, Arronis Jackson, to dispose of Miller’s remains, which authorities recovered from the Little Calumet River earlier this week.
“Barbaric,” Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. said in disgust before ordering the siblings held without bond.
The 28-year-old Miller, of Atlanta, was last seen alive by a friend on June 21, Assistant State’s Attorney Todd Kleist said. Later that afternoon, the 28-year-old called her father to wish him a happy Father’s Day. She had been planning on traveling back to the South the next day so she could be there for her child’s surgery later that week.
Paul Meyers | Chicago Police
She never made it.
When Meyers heard a recording on Miller’s cellphone of her talking about sleeping with another man, he grew livid and hit her on the head with a hammer, Kleist said. Miller started to cry, sending Meyers into such a rage, he choked her to death in his home in the 2700 block of West 84th Place.
Meyers, 33, wrapped Miller’s body in a shower curtain and then placed it in the trunk of her car, Kleist said. He drove the car around, wondering what to do with the body.
A few days later, Jackson, 44, assisted in disposing of Miller’s remains, which had been placed in four suitcases, Kleist said.
Arronis Jackson | Chicago Police
Miller’s car was found abandoned in the 12100 block of South Wallace soon after. Maggots and Miller’s blood lined the carpet in the truck.
Meyers paid someone to clean the room he was staying in with bleach and other cleaners, Kleist said. He also got rid of his mattress, which was later recovered in the garbage with red stains.
The trash also contained a piece of Miller’s jewelery, Kleist said.
Meyers, who has been charged with murder, made five separate third-party admissions about what he had done, prosecutors said.
Jackson, of the 2600 block of West 87th Street, also gave third-party admissions and confessed his role in the crime, Kleist said.
The father of five is charged with concealment of a homicidal death.
Meyers was already on parole for a weapons case.
The father of four works as a barber, an assistant public defender said.