Crime · Atlanta, GA
Two Women Charged With Murder After 4-Year-Old Found Dead in Atlanta Home
Atlanta police discovered the body of 4-year-old Colby Cooks hidden under clothes in a master bedroom closet around 7:20 p.m. Monday during a welfare check, ruling his death a homicide by blunt force trauma. Jasmaine Smoak, 32, who served as primary caretaker for Cooks and four other unrelated children in the townhome, and Jasmine Tyree Jenkins, 30, face charges of murder and first-degree cruelty to children after being arrested in Wilkes County. Investigators say the two women left the children unattended Sunday evening; Smoak later told her father a child had ingested medication before she fled with four surviving children. A 5-year-old survivor was hospitalized in Augusta for malnourishment and facial injuries attributed to abuse.