PHILADELPHIA, May 2 (UPI) -- Relatives fear that a toddler whose body was found in a suitcase in Philadelphia may have been killed by a cult his mother joined.
Investigators have not confirmed that the body is 18-month-old Javon Thompson. The body was discovered earlier this week in a shed behind a rowhouse after Baltimore police got a tip about the missing boy.
Colleen Khadan, Javon's aunt, told the Philadelphia Daily News that his mother, Ria Reshma Ramkissoon, joined a religious group after his birth.
"Before she joined up with these people, she was the best mother -- she wouldn't let anyone else bathe him or feed him; she wanted to do everything," Khadan said. "She was going to trade-school to be a pharmacy technician. We were in shock that she would leave all that behind."
Seeta Newton, Ramkissoon's mother, tried to convince her daughter to leave the cult and then to get custody of the boy, Khadan said.
The man living in the house told police he let a group of people from Baltimore stay with him for a few days last year and then to store some items in his shed.
