Janiah B. Thomas was a 20-year-old mother of two from Decatur, Illinois, who was 26 weeks pregnant when she was killed on the afternoon of March 8, 2023. While sitting on a couch inside a residence in the 1300 block of North Woodford Street at approximately 4:52 p.m., multiple gunshots were fired into the home from outside. Janiah was struck and fatally wounded; her unborn daughter, to be named Ja’Nylah Brielle Thomas, also did not survive.

Janiah’s 4-year-old daughter was with her at the time and was shot in the eye; the child survived with non-life-threatening injuries but faced a long recovery that included therapy and an eye replacement. Investigators arrested a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old within weeks, and charged Mattarion A. Anderson as an adult. After a day and a half of testimony in Macon County Circuit Court, the presiding judge found Mattarion A. Anderson guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Janiah and her unborn child.

Janiah is survived by her young son and daughter. A community fundraiser was held to help with funeral costs, the injured child’s medical bills, and to establish a trust for the surviving children.