James Sylve was a 1-year-old Black boy from Kenner, Louisiana, whose life ended in violence in May 1998. In mid-May he was in the care of his stepfather, Eric Dawon Matthews, after the family had already suffered the killing of James’s mother, Lashann Sylve Matthews, who was found bound, gagged and showing signs of choking in the family’s trailer in Hammond two days before James was found.

When Matthews and the children were missing, a multi-jurisdictional search unfolded. On May 20, 1998, Matthews was arrested in Illinois; officers found James’s sister in the car but not James. Matthews said he had taken the boy to a hospital, a claim investigators checked. James’s body was later discovered in Kenner, concealed in a gym bag and left in a trash bin behind a church.

Matthews was treated as the central suspect and ultimately admitted responsibility for killing James. The case went through years of legal disputes including arguments over the confession; it later concluded with a guilty plea to second-degree murder and a life sentence without parole. If anyone knew James or has information about the events around mid-May 1998, please come forward.