Four Adults in the House and No-one Knows What Happened- The Story of Sema’j Crosby
A so-called inconclusive autopsy report found no signs of blunt force trauma or physical injury. The house is in very deplorable conditions, yes. Authorities report as many as 15 squatters lived in the home.
So the story I have for you today is about a little girl whose disappearance and subsequent death raised a lot of suspicion within the community. And even though there were four adults who were last seen with this toddler, to this day, 7 years later, there still have been no arrests made. This is the story of Sema’j Crosby.
Sema’j Le’Myiah Crosby was born on November 2, 2015, to her mother, Sheri Gordon, and her father, James Crosby. She had three brothers and one sister and lived in Chicago, Illinois. Sema’j was a lively but cuddly toddler. She was very girly and loved the color pink.
Now, Sema’j lived in an 864-square-foot home located at 309 Lewis Road in Joliet Township with her mother, Sheri, her siblings, her paternal grandmother Darlene Crosby, her paternal aunt Lacricia Crosby, her aunt’s two young children, and her aunt’s parolee boyfriend, Wesley Sykes. Many of these people had lived in the home since 2016, though Sema’j’s mother Sheri’s Section 8 voucher was only meant to be for her and her children. It was said, however, by neighbors that there was anywhere from 5 to 15 people living in the home at various times.
So Sema’j’s paternal aunt Lacricia, along with her boyfriend Wesley, had lived in the house on and off since 2016. And Wesley was an ex-convict who had served two stints in prison for aggravated battery, and at the beginning of 2017 he was actually on probation due to an attack on his ex-girlfriend in 2016.
Sema’j’s father James, who had previously lived in the home as well, was in prison as of early 2017. He was serving time for theft as well as domestic battery charges that stemmed from an incident from February of 2015. Sema’j would go to visit her father every weekend while he was in jail.
On April 25, 2017, the women who lived in the home—Lacricia, Sheri, and Darlene—along with Darlene’s friend Tamika Robinson, decided that they were going to take all of the children in the home to get some ice cream at Dairy Queen. But prior to this trip for ice cream, at 3:00 p.m., all the children went outside and began dancing to music. Around 3:45 p.m., Sheri went outside and took her daughter Sema’j inside for a diaper change.
It was only about 15 to 20 minutes later, around 4:00 p.m., that Sheri announced she couldn’t find Sema’j. Sheri and the other women immediately began to look for the toddler in the yard and around their neighborhood. But by 6:30 p.m., when they still hadn’t found a single trace of the girl, they decided they needed to call the police.
“All right, hold on one second, ma’am. I’m going to announce the call, okay? 911, where’s your emergency?”
“Hi, my—”
“Hold on, ma’am. Let me transfer for 309 [Lewis] Road in Preston Heights. Go ahead, ma’am.”
“Thank you.”
“What’s going on there?”
“Yes, my daughter is missing. I cannot find her. She was outside playing with the kids, and she’s missing.”
“Okay, how old is she?”
“She’s one.”
“All right, stay on the phone with me while we get the police in route. What’s her name?”
“Sema’j.”
“Spell it for me.”
“Sema’j Crosby. S-E-M-A-J.”
“When’s the last time you saw her?”
“Um, in the front yard, um, when everybody was outside in the front yard.”
“Okay, so how long ago was that?”
“That was about, uh… I don’t know how long it was. It was like half a—30 minutes, 20 minutes ago. I just—30, I can’t… It wasn’t… It was a whole lot of kids out here. It was a whole lot of kids out here. It was a whole lot of grown… It was a lot of dogs out here watching them, everything. Listen—”
“Okay, take a deep breath. I need to ask you some questions. So, you think it was 30 minutes ago that you last saw her?”
“Yes, yes.”
“What—okay, did you check your house to see if she’s in there?”
“Yes, I’m checking it out. I’ve been checking it.”
“All right, did you check with the neighbors?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Has she ever wandered off before?”
“No.”
“Okay, how many kids do you have at your house?”
“I have, um, three, um…”
“Okay, is it possible that… is there a park at the school?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, is it possible that somebody could have taken her to the park?”
“No, because she’s not at the park. The park is right behind my house.”
“Okay, you said it’s not possible that she’s there?”
“We don’t see her. We don’t see her at the park.”
“I know. Listen, we have the police—they’re coming for you, okay? They’re coming to help you. But I want you to stay on the phone with me so I can ask you questions, because we have to narrow down where you’ve looked, okay? So, did you look at the park at the school or no?”
“Yeah, we looked at the park at school, okay.”
“And no one was supposed to come pick her up, right? Like, Dad was not supposed to come get her, or no one was picking her up, right?”
“No.”
“Okay, so she’s a female Black. She’s got pigtails in her hair, and she’s wearing like blue jean sweatpants with a gray sweater, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, can she walk on her own?”
“Yeah, she could walk.”
“Okay. Mommy, and one of the older kids that’s at your house—nobody took her, right? They’re all… course, you don’t have anybody missing?”
“Yes, my daughter is missing.”
“Right, I understand. But your older kids are there, right?”
“Yes.”
“Who is… who is that, ma’am?”
“Yes, that was my…”
“Okay, did you check in the backyard? You checked in the closets, in the bathrooms, everything like that?”
“Huh… okay, ma’am, your older kid that you have at the house—how old are they?”
“Hello, ma’am, the older kids that you have at the house, how old are they?”
“Two and three and 10.”
“Okay, the older kids that you have there, like the 10-year-old—I want you to have them start checking the house. Check in the closet, in the bathrooms, check the garage, everything. Did you… do you understand what I’m—what I’m asking you, ma’am?”
“Hello? Did you understand what I asked you?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, that 10-year-old, the other child that’s there—you need to have them start looking for her, okay?”
“They have been looking for her.”
“All right. They checked the house though, really well, correct? She’s not in the car?”
“Do you have a garage attached to the house?”
“No, I do not.”
“Okay. Do you have a vehicle parked outside?”
“No, I do not.”
“Okay, did we check the vehicle, right?”
“It’s okay, ma’am. It’s okay. Listen, take a deep breath, okay?”
“Watch out, please.”
“It’s okay, take a deep breath.”
“Okay, oh my God.”
“It’s okay, we have—we have three officers that are en route to you right now, okay? Take a deep breath in through your nose, out through your mouth.”
“Okay, take a deep breath. There’s no other adult that’s there with you right now?”
“Out of there! Out of there, please! I’m on the phone with them now.”
“Okay, who is that that you’re talking to?”
“Granny.”
“Okay. And you went to all the neighbor houses on your block, correct?”
“The one they say next door to me.”
“What’s that?”
“The one that’s next door to me.”
“Okay, ma’am, I’m having trouble hearing you or understanding you.”
“The ones that’s next door to me.”
“All right, I have an officer that’s pulling up on your street right now, okay? Can you go out to the front yard?”
“Yes, I’m out here now.”
“Okay, do you see him pulling up?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, ma’am, I want you to go ahead and talk to him, okay?”
“Okay.”
And authorities immediately put out an alert to the public letting them know that 16-month-old Sema’j Crosby had gone missing. She had been shoeless, wearing dark blue jeans and a gray long-sleeve shirt decorated with a cat’s face, and Sema’j’s hair was in white beaded ponytails. Police also announced at this time that they did not believe that there was any foul play involved in Sema’j’s disappearance, as all of the adults in the home were cooperating with them at that time.
The same day that the little girl had gone missing, authorities had gone door-to-door asking neighbors if they had seen any trace of her. And even though nobody knew where Sema’j was, multiple neighbors would tell police that they had seen her earlier in the day; she had been walking across the street with her cousins and siblings, and she was seen wearing the outfit that she had gone missing in.
During the first day of the search for Sema’j, some of her family members told police that a man who lived nearby had the girl in his home. So multiple people, angered, went over to the man’s house and demanded that he let them search his home. Initially, the man refused to let anybody inside; however, after speaking with police, he decided to let them inside to search, but no trace of Sema’j was found there.
Police sent out a reverse 911 call to residents within a 5-mile radius asking them to check their yards for Sema’j. Bloodhounds, detectives, patrolmen, volunteers, and over 80 emergency personnel searched the area surrounding Sema’j’s house all through the night. They, however, had no success. The thing was, Sema’j was only 16 months old, and she had just learned to walk a few weeks prior, so she was not very steady on her feet, which means she could not have gotten very far.
When Sema’j was originally reported as missing, police had searched the home where she lived, but after the mother had told police that the little girl had run off while she was outside, they focused their search out there instead. That same night, though, after they still had found no signs of the toddler, police decided to start from scratch, and they wanted to search the house all over again. That time, however, Sheri would tell them no. And since police did not have enough probable cause at that point, they were unable to obtain a search warrant.
But after 2 days of coming up with nothing, officials again made the decision to try to search the house, and again Sheri would not allow it. But this time, police were able to obtain a search warrant, and on the night of April 27th, police and the FBI went in and searched the house. And inside, they found that the living conditions were so unsafe and unsanitary that the investigators had to wear hazmat suits to conduct their search.
The entire dwelling appeared unsanitary due to the heavily soiled carpets, dirty walls, and garbage everywhere. The back door and electrical panel were blocked by strollers, full black garbage bags, toys, clothing, and containers. The place was also infested with roaches and bedbugs, and just a day later would end up being deemed as unfit for human occupancy and condemned.
About an hour into the search of the filthy home, around midnight, the hunt for Sema’j would come to an end. It was close to 30 hours after she had been reported as missing that her body would be found inside her own home, underneath the couch in the living room.
The couch that Sema’j was found underneath weighed more than 100 pounds, and since it had no legs on it, it was only 2.5 inches off the ground, which means that she would never have been able to get underneath there by herself. So the detectives had no idea how Sema’j’s body had gotten underneath the family’s couch, but they did believe that the toddler was already dead before she had been placed there.
The other thing that was puzzling about where Sema’j’s body had been found was that during the initial search, police had actually lifted up that exact couch for Lacricia to get one of Sema’j’s shoes from underneath so that search dogs could get her scent. And speaking of these dogs, when they were searching for Sema’j, they would sniff the shoe, then go a few yards away from the house before then turning back around, running towards the house, and tapping on the window near where the couch was located. In addition, the Crosbys, as well as other people who were squatting in the home, had been sitting on that couch throughout the search for Sema’j.
Now, since the little girl’s death was looking highly suspicious, the other children that lived in the home were removed by Child Protective Services.
“She was good baby. She—she liked playing, laughing, always playing, laughing.”
Grieving elsewhere with family, Gordon returned to the home for the first time today.
“Just want her to rest in peace, there.”
She witnessed the growing memorial created by strangers and even investigators who left remembrances to honor Sema’j.
During a meeting, the lead detective on the case would say: “I can tell you with 100% certainty that Sema’j did not get under that couch by herself. One, if not more, of those four grown women know exactly what happened to Sema’j.”
Those four women—Sheri, Sema’j’s grandmother Darlene, her aunt Lacricia, and the family friend Tamika—were all people of interest. There was also a teenage minor who’d been in the home that day, and police would question her as well.
And these four women had all by now obtained attorneys—most of them actually had gotten lawyers before Sema’j’s body was even found. Authorities would also say that these four women were now becoming rather uncooperative in the investigation. As police had questioned each of these four women, they found that their stories had inconsistencies, and their accounts often conflicted with previous stories that they had told earlier in the day.
As part of the investigation into Sema’j’s death, Tamika, Darlene, and Lacricia were all given a polygraph. Her mother Sheri refused to get one, though, and wouldn’t say why. And all three women who did take the test failed and refused to retake it. Darlene even said that it was a hoax.
And the Crosbys were now refusing to let Darlene’s minor daughter—the teenager who had been in the home the day that Sema’j had disappeared—speak with police at all.
Another thing that was looking suspicious is that on the day that Sema’j had disappeared, her godmother, Latoya, had driven over to the home to help look for her. And once Latoya had gotten there, she noticed that everybody was out searching for Sema’j. She says everyone, except for Darlene and her friend, who were just sitting around casually laughing and talking.
And while they had been looking for Sema’j, her aunt Lacricia had followed Sheri around, staying very close to the mother during various interviews, that she monitored, interrupted, and even ended—the entire time making sure that she never left her side, and all communication was monitored and controlled. And also, during an interview with police, Lacricia had interrupted by telling Sheri, “Do not talk to them.”
When Sema’j’s grandmother Darlene spoke with the media, she denied ever getting a lawyer herself, and she also came out publicly and said that she believed Sheri had actually been the one who killed her daughter Sema’j. She believes that Sheri had killed her daughter out of spite, and Darlene said that Sheri was also the first one to obtain a lawyer, and she had kept Darlene and the other women out of the house the day that Sema’j had disappeared. And Darlene was also claiming that Sheri was, in fact, the only one who didn’t go out and search for her daughter, unlike what Sema’j’s godmother Latoya had previously said—that it was Darlene who hadn’t gone out and looked for her.
So who knows? Tamika Sims, also one of five persons of interest, says she has cooperated extensively and was asked as recently as a few months ago to help with the investigation.
“I’ve been working with them from day one. I have always, always participated in as far as what the police…”
Sims tells us she distanced herself from Darlene and Lacricia Crosby when she says their story started to change.
“I started believing like, what, maybe they might be a part of it, too. The story never stayed the same. They was switching up stuff, like I don’t get it.”
And the very day after Sema’j was laid to rest, on May 6th, a fire tore through the home where she lived and burned it to the ground. Upon their arrival, firefighters had seen tons of smoke billowing out of the home, and for safety reasons, they had decided to just let it burn down. The fire would end up being ruled as arson by fire marshals, but no arrest would be made. And as a result of the fire, investigators on Sema’j’s case were now faced with the fact that all the additional evidence that was in the home and that could have led to an arrest was now permanently destroyed.
At this time, Sema’j’s autopsy results were also pending further studies, which left a lot of questions surrounding her death. The medical examiner had found that there was no sign of trauma to Sema’j’s body, and it was not clear at first exactly how the little girl had died. It took four more months—an entire five months since Sema’j had been found dead inside her home—for her death to finally be ruled a homicide.
An additional autopsy that was performed in September of 2017 found that the girl had died of asphyxiation. The coroner’s office said that its homicide ruling was based on the unusual circumstances surrounding Sema’j’s disappearance, the subsequent discovery of her decomposing body underneath the couch in her own home, multiple previous contacts with DCFS, the suspicious fire at the residence, and the lack of cooperation by the suspects.
Yes, Child Protective Services had prior contact with the family and had actually been working with them since September of 2016. They were highly criticized after Sema’j’s death for not doing more to protect her, as they should be. One reason for the harsh criticism was because only 40 minutes before Sema’j had disappeared, at 3:20 p.m., child service protection workers had stopped by the house to check in on the toddler and her family. They were visiting that day due to allegations of neglect by Sheri in the past.
The child services hotline had received multiple phone calls in regards to Sema’j, her siblings, and her cousins. One complaint said that there were 30 people living in the 864-square-foot home, and they were openly drinking and using drugs in front of the children.
On the day that Sema’j had gone missing, there were numerous adults and children who were squatting in the home, some of them being previous child abusers. This included Aunt Lacricia’s boyfriend, Wesley Sykes, who had sexually abused Sema’j’s three-year-old cousin and was abusive towards the three-year-old’s younger brother as well. Wesley had actually been taken into custody the same day that Sema’j had disappeared, but prior to her disappearance, so he was not considered to be a suspect.
Sema’j and her siblings had been the victims of child abuse—verbal, physical, and mental. One of Sema’j’s brothers, who was only seven years old, struggled so much in the home that he reported suicidal ideations to both his mother and his teacher. This teacher had notified child services, who was already conducting an investigation on Sheri at the time. And due to these ideations, the seven-year-old had actually been hospitalized three times since September of 2016.
This courageous older brother of Sema’j had actually told child service workers about the abuse that he was dealing with. He also said that he no longer wanted his paternal grandmother and aunt living with them, but he was never helped.
Child service workers describe Sema’j’s mother Sheri in reports as nurturing and caring towards her children, but she potentially had cognitive and/or learning disabilities. And these potential disabilities may have impacted her ability to ensure that her children’s health and mental health were properly cared for.
During a visit from DCFS that had happened in April of 2015, investigators had found sufficient evidence that Sema’j’s father James had actually whipped his five-year-old son with his belt after the boy had gotten in trouble at school.
And when Sema’j’s seven-year-old brother had reported in January of 2016 that his mother Sheri hit him and his siblings over the head with a shoe, the case was assigned to a caseworker who was relatively new and already overwhelmed with other cases. So what this worker had done was closed out the case within a week, citing insufficient evidence. This was after the children in the home had denied that there was any abuse going on—because, of course, they’re going to. And an outside social worker told the DCFS investigator that she had no concerns related to the allegations.
Even though detectives had said that the home where the little girl lived with her family was uninhabitable, child services said differently. They said that the home was often messy, but was not deplorable. During the most recent visit, a caseworker had noted that the home was rather untidy, but had told Sheri that she just needed to make sure it was clean by the time they returned back in a couple of weeks. And when child services was later confronted about this, they would say that they don’t take children out of their homes simply because they’re dirty—which I get. But then there was also lots of abuse allegations and neglect allegations on top of that.
So it was discovered that the DCFS office that had handled Sema’j’s case at the time of her death had actually had a contest going on that had started three months prior. The contest awarded $100 gift cards to the two social workers who closed out the most cases in a month, and the third-place winner got a $50 gift card. Yeah, let that sink in for a second. I’m sure you’re fuming like I was when I read that. A contest to see who can close out the most cases? Are you fucking kidding me?
The agency would later say that they had made a big mistake running this contest and they abruptly ended it. In addition, there were also reports that were considered to be crucial in Sema’j’s case that were not filed until after she had died. Some of these interviews and findings were documented only weeks later, which is in direct violation of the agency’s policy. And also, the director of DCFS, George Sheldon, resigned approximately one month after Sema’j’s death—can’t imagine why.
The Sheriff’s Office also publicly announced that they had gone out to Sema’j’s house 59 times between February of 2016 and April of 2017, when Sema’j had died. 40 of these were said to be for probation checks; however, that still leaves 19 more calls in only 14 months, so still quite a bit. It said that two of these police visits were for welfare checks—one in October of 2016 and one in March of 2017. Four other visits were for disturbances, some domestic in nature. Four were for public service, two were for crisis intervention, and two more were to deliver subpoenas.
And James Crosby, who was incarcerated at the time of his daughter Sema’j’s death, said that he did not know that the conditions in the home were as bad as they were. He said, “All I know is that DCFS is coming because of my son… my son, he gets in trouble a lot.” He continued, “That was the only thing I knew. Squatters in and out? No.” Which I don’t necessarily believe that, but…
And not long after Sema’j’s death, her father James filed a lawsuit against her mother Sheri as well as Child Protective Services. The lawsuit alleged that negligence by both parties had led to the death of his 16-month-old daughter Sema’j. Among other things, it alleged that Sheri was the one who had placed Sema’j underneath the couch where she had been found. The lawsuit states that Sema’j’s mother had cognitive limitations, and this interfered with coordinating the children’s medical appointments and care. The lawsuit also says that the social worker observed, or should have observed, the home in an unsafe and unsanitary condition with bedbugs and cockroaches. These conditions clearly presented a hazard for the children who were living there.
And in April of 2022, James Crosby would end up winning the lawsuit, and he was given a settlement of $6.4 million by Child Protective Services of Illinois. It said that the money was to go into a trust for each of Sema’j’s siblings, and they will have access to it once they turn 18.
After a judge had removed Sheri’s other children from the home following Sema’j’s death, Sheri would say that being a mother was the most important thing to her, and it’s all she ever wanted to do—she wanted more than anything to get custody back of her children. Then not long after, Sheri gave birth to twin boys, who she also lost custody of, though it’s not clear if she gained custody back at any point.
Sema’j’s funeral was held on May 5, 2017, and some of her family members wore shirts reading “Team Sema’j” as her body was displayed in a tiny white and gold casket at Prayer Tower Ministries Church of God in Christ in Joliet. The word “Princess” was written inside the lid of the open casket, and “God’s Little Angel” was projected on two screens nearby. Sema’j was then buried at Elmhurst Cemetery in Joliet.
And on November 2, 2017, Sema’j’s relatives organized a party on what would have been her second birthday. Several dozen people attended the event, and they sang happy birthday, blew out candles, and cut cake in honor of Sema’j.
Well, thank you for listening to Sema’j’s story today. While I would love to see somebody get arrested and convicted for the little girl’s murder, I doubt that will ever happen, especially since any potential evidence that was in the home was completely destroyed by the fire—and that was definitely not a coincidence. I do wonder how she really died and what happened to her that day, but unless one of the four women who were in the home decide to speak up, we’ll likely never know.
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Thanks for watching A Wicked World today. Until next time, take care, guys. Bye!
