A South Side man beat and choked his girlfriend to death before dismembering her body and placing the pieces in four suitcases, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.
Paul Meyers then allegedly enlisted the help of his older brother, Arronis Jackson, in disposing of Laneesha 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.
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 woman 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.
She never made it.
Laneesha Miller | Chicago Police
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 in such a rage, he allegedly choked her to death in his home.
Meyers, 33, wrapped Miller’s body in a shower curtain and then placed it in the trunk of her car, Kleist said.
Meyers drove the car around, wondering what to do with the body, Kleist said.
A few days later, Jackson, 44, assisted in disposing of Miller’s remains, which had been placed in four suitcases, Kleist said. Meyers had allegedly dismembered her.
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 allegedly got rid of his mattress, which was later recovered in the garbage with red stains.
The trash also contained a piece of Miller’s jewelry, Kleist said.
Meyers, who has been charged with murder, told people in at least five instances about what he had done, prosecutors said.
Jackson, of the 2600 block of West 87th Street, also told others and confessed on videotape to his role in the crime, Kleist said.
Jackson, a father of five, was charged with concealment of a homicidal death.
Meyers, of the 2700 block of 84th Place, is on parole for a weapons case. A father of four, he works as a barber, an assistant public defender said.
