Baby in suitcase: Battered mom waited month to report missing child

The mother of the baby girl whose body was found dumped in a suitcase in Jersey City on April 11was so afraid of her boyfriend that she waited a month to report the toddler missing, according to an interview she gave to a newspaper.

The 22-month-old's father, Travis Plummer, was arrested Monday in San Juan, Puerto Rico, by FBI agents on a charge of desecrating human remains.

Plummer was once implicated in the 2005 death of his 8-month-old son, who died in a bathtub. Plummer served a year in jail as part of a plea deal in the neglect case.

Plummer has not been charged in the death of 20-month-old Te’Myah Plummer.

Investigators are determining how and when Te’Myah was killed. Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez has said that authorities do not believe she was killed in New Jersey.

The toddler's mother, Teshauna Cooper, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Plummer told her in September that he had sent Te’Myah to live with a friend's grandmother in North Carolina.

Cooper said she didn't ask too many questions because she feared Plummer would hurt her. After the baby was sent away, the parents moved into public housing in Richmond, where she says they got into a fight that left her with a black eye.

Cooper said she got a restraining order and Plummer left Richmond. Te'Myah was  reported missing by Cooper in November.

In the interview with the newspaper, Cooper expressed frustration at not being able to plan her daughter's funeral because she doesn't know when the body will be returned to Virginia.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ