Sept. 12--Hours after calling her dad to wish him a happy Father's Day in June, an Atlanta woman was killed in Chicago by her boyfriend, who had become enraged after hearing a recording on her cellphone in which she talked about having sex with another man, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.
The body of 28-year-old Laneesha Miller was discovered Thursday afternoon in the Little Calumet River near the Bishop Ford Freeway and 135th Street.
Her body had been dismembered and put into four suitcases before being dumped into the river, prosecutors said.
Calling the actions "barbaric," Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. on Friday ordered Paul Meyers, 33, of the 2700 block of West 84th Place, held without bail. Meyers' brother, Arronis Jackson, 44, of the 2600 block of West 87th Street, was charged with concealment of a homicide and also held without bail.
Prosecutors said Meyers, on parole for a gun conviction, made admissions to several people that were corroborated by phone records and that his brother gave a video-recorded statement admitting he helped dispose of Miller's body.
Miller, who was in Chicago visiting Meyers, was last seen alive by a friend June 21, the same day she called her father to wish him a happy Father's Day, prosecutors said. She was supposed to meet a friend for dinner that night and then drive home the next day before her child had surgery, prosecutors said.
Meyers struck Miller in the head with a hammer after hearing the recording, Assistant State's Attorney Todd Kleist said. He then choked her to death, wrapped the body in a shower curtain and put it in the trunk of her Nissan Maxima, Kleist said. Meyers drove around for a while before deciding to dismember the body, he said.
Jackson helped dispose of Miller's body a couple of days later but did not take part in dismembering it, Kleist said.
Miller's car was found a few days later in the 12100 block of South Wallace Street, Kleist said. DNA testing on blood found on carpeting in the trunk revealed it was Miller's, he said.
Police recovered a mattress believed to belong to Meyers in the garbage and found red stains on it, Kleist said. A piece of jewelry Miller owned was found in the garbage, he said.
Acting on information from detectives, Chicago police marine unit divers had searched for Miller's remains in the Marquette Park Lagoon on July 14. Police drained part of the lagoon during the search.
Chicago Tribune's Jeremy Gorner contributed.
sschmadeke@tribpub.com
