$5 million bail for North Chicago mother charged with 6-year-old son’s death

Bail was set at $5 million Wednesday for a mother accused of killing her 6-year-old son and attempting to dispose of his body.

Jannie Perry, 38, has been charged with first-degree murder, concealment of a homicidal death and obstructing justice in Damari Perry’s death, according to the Lake County state’s attorney’s office.

She appeared in court Wednesday afternoon after spending time at a hospital, where she had been taken by police after complaining of an illness, the state’s attorney’s office said.

Damari’s brother, 20-year-old Jeremiah Perry, has also been charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm to a child, concealing a homicidal death and obstructing justice, prosecutors said.

He appeared in court Sunday where he was ordered held on $3 million bail.

Damari was found dead Jan. 8 near an abandoned house in Gary, Indiana after being falsely reported missing by his mother and his sibling days earlier, authorities said.

An autopsy found Damari died of hypothermia, and there were thermal burns or charring over his body, the Lake County coroner’s office said. His death was ruled a homicide.

Prosecutors alleged family members had forced the child into a cold shower as punishment on Dec. 30. Damari started vomiting and became unresponsive, and after he died the family decided to discard his body, according to prosecutors.

Police were initially told that the boy was missing from Skokie, prosecutors said.

In 2014, Jannie Perry lost custody of her four children after a domestic violence investigation by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. She regained custody of her children in 2017 after a court order.