Found Deceased IL - Jelani 'JJ' Day, 25, ISU grad student, missed class, Bloomington, 23 Aug 2021

[dotr]

Iirc, JJ apparently would call his mother several times a day, would that be considered common behavior for a 25 yr old man?
He does seem older than 25 yrs old, he must have studied hard to be a grad student, maybe the pandemic have made him feel overwhelmed and desirous to feel like a teenager again, young and free, with minimal responsibilities?
Wonder if he is doing a ''walkabout'' of his old schools and neighbourhood- maybe even meet up with a friend from''back in the day'' (sometimes trouble, imo)?
speculation.

 

[LaborDayRN]

It's interesting that Jelani missed a meeting with a faculty member and that prompted the faculty member to contact police. ??
Also, the info about the clothing. Is that new or did I miss that?

Quoting myself to say that I now see that the faculty member apparently said he also wasn't answering his phone or texts and that was out of character for him. Thanks @inmyhumbleopinion

 

[agilbe]

Have there been more searches in the area of the abandoned car by family and friends? Sometimes things get missed the first time around. Also, I'm a little surprised there have been no credible tips with the prospect of a reward. A year or two back a chef went missing. He wasn't found for quite awhile. A reward was offered and poof, like magic, there he was. I think his name was Doug Calhoun.

 

[Gobstopper]

Iirc, JJ apparently would call his mother several times a day, would that be considered common behavior for a 25 yr old man?
He does seem older than 25 yrs old, he must have studied hard to be a grad student, maybe the pandemic have made him feel overwhelmed and desirous to feel like a teenager again, young and free, with minimal responsibilities?
Wonder if he is doing a ''walkabout'' of his old schools and neighbourhood- maybe even meet up with a friend from''back in the day'' (sometimes trouble, imo)?
speculation.

I don't necessarily think calling mom several times a day is typical but maybe mom wanted the communication. I have a son in grad school. It's competitive, the best of the best get accepted and it's stressful I'm sure. I probably text my son every day, not sure that's typical either.
I wonder if JJ had a romantic interest? Was he dating anyone? Who were his friends at grad school? How was his social life? I think knowing his friend groups would be key in finding him. Didn't he tell anyone what was going on in his life? MOO

 

[GuyfromCanada]

A big article about the case.

Jelani Day: What We Know About Missing ISU Grad Student's Disappearance

 

[MntnHiker]

So dressed nicely, on campus early, gets coffee, and has a meeting (presumably on campus) with a professor that he misses. But is seen alive just two hours later in a change of clothes at the dispensary.

Now I am very curious to see what his phone records say. I'm assuming LE has that? I think I was under the impression the missed professor meeting was the NEXT day. Now knowing it was that very morning, I feel like his plans were very abruptly interrupted. If he had no intention of meeting with this professor and planned to blow her off (which doesn't seem like him anyway), why go to campus, get dressed up, be there earl, get coffee etc? It seems like he DID intend to meet her, but something happened to make him miss the meeting and go to the dispensary instead. Did someone call him? A friend in crisis maybe? It would have to be something pretty important to make him miss this meeting IMO.

Do we know what time the meeting was supposed to happen? Before or after the 9:12 sighting at the dispensary?

 

[dlerrahlk1130]

Can family get phone records without a warrant if they don’t share a phone plan?

 

[StacyMarie83]

The meeting kind of throws me off, school seemed important, and to blow the meeting off seems odd to me. He's had to work so hard to be a grad student and I've blown off my fair share of important meetings, because I got into my own head - you feel terrible, like a jerk, failure, like never going back, etc - but I feel that is something he could have went to his mom with. I would always go to mine and talked to her like he talks to his (still do and I'm 38 lol).

I'm surprised there's no electronic footprint after the dispensary. My guess is that he went to meet someone after the fact, but who? A girl? A new friend? An old friend?

We need more unfortunately

 

[carbuff]

WHAT? Then get the chemical!

I know there were worldwide shortages of several lab chemicals last year, so they might be having that problem again.

 

[GuyfromCanada]

Possibly Jelani's clothes found about a mile away from where a body was found earlier this month (in the river) that is still unidentified. Video at link.

Jelani Day’s mother wants FBI involved in missing son’s case – CIProud.com

 

[MyJoey]

Does anyone have a visual of the area the car was found? I wonder if there was any other missing clothing. The clothing he wore in the morning, where was that found? With the information we have now it really appears he may have had a mental health crisis or just needed to run away for awhile.

 

[MimosaMornings]

A big article about the case.

Jelani Day: What We Know About Missing ISU Grad Student's Disappearance

“Day's mother, Carmen Bolden Day, said it’s not like him to disappear without telling someone about his whereabouts.

She said her son wants to become a doctor and he was attending Illinois State to get his master’s degree in speech pathology.

“I need him to come home so that he could continue his journey of becoming Dr. Jelani Day,” she said.”

Was this his dream or his mother’s?

What we are missing is information from his friends, his possible roommate(s), his social circle, etc. What does he enjoy doing? Favorite hangout? Place to get away?
Is there a FB page set up for him by the family? What about any social media for him?
JMO

 

[LotusPawprint]

Can family get phone records without a warrant if they don’t share a phone plan?

They put out a call to action to have people bombard APPLE to get the company to share info about the phone a couple weeks ago. The Find JJ page posted that someone from Apple contacted them but the post wasn't clear about what, if anything, was learned. Clearly nothing that has been useful enough.

 

[MyJoey]

Possibly Jelani's clothes found about a mile away from where a body was found earlier this month (in the river) that is still unidentified. Video at link.

Jelani Day’s mother wants FBI involved in missing son’s case – CIProud.com

Ok I know water takes it’s toll on a body but there is no way it should still be unidentified unless is was mangled before going into the water. Or the body was there a long time.

 

[LotusPawprint]

I know there were worldwide shortages of several lab chemicals last year, so they might be having that problem again.

That's what came to mind for me too and is the only reasonable explanation for 'not having the chemical', so does that mean that departments across the country don't have access to this chemical ? I haven't read about this being the reason for delays in other cases where a body is found and waiting to be IDed, but it's possible.

 

[MyJoey]

Still dental records would tell if it was him.

 

[LotusPawprint]

Possibly Jelani's clothes found about a mile away from where a body was found earlier this month (in the river) that is still unidentified. Video at link.

Jelani Day’s mother wants FBI involved in missing son’s case – CIProud.com

FBI spokesperson said discussions are in the works but did not say if the agency is involved.

 

[LotusPawprint]

Does anyone have a visual of the area the car was found? I wonder if there was any other missing clothing. The clothing he wore in the morning, where was that found? With the information we have now it really appears he may have had a mental health crisis or just needed to run away for awhile.

I thought I had posted the link with pictures of the car location a couple of weeks ago but I can't find it so I'm looking for it again. A local journalist and Jelani's mom went to the scene. I will edit when I find it.

The info about the clothing being found is new (to me). It's bizarre. If someone hurt him and removed the clothes, it sounds like they didn't do a great job of getting rid of them.
So much doesn't add up. It seems sloppy, the disposal of the clothes and the car, if someone did him harm.

 

[LotusPawprint]

https://mobile.twitter.com/RNewsWILL/status/1434331093910573057


The bottom right picture is from where the car was found.

 

[swanniee11]

I'm actually pissed that they have not finished this autopsy. Way to long and how horrible for the family. Praying for Jelani!